Liam Barry’s debut as the Australian men’s team’s coach has been full of heartbreak after his team slumped to two tight losses at the Perth Sevens.
But it was much brighter news for the Aussie women, with a first-half hat-trick to Maddison Levi lifting them to a 43-0 demolition of Spain on Friday night, following on from their 31-7 win over China earlier in the day.
The Australian men pulled off a miraculous comeback in their opener against Argentina, scoring three tries in the final three minutes to send the match into extra time.
But Argentina prevailed in the golden-point period to secure the 31-26 win.
Then in Australia’s second match, they led South Africa 7-5 before conceding a try in the final three minutes to lose 10-7.
The back-to-back losses means Australia must beat the US on Saturday to have any chance of going through to the quarter-finals of the three-day event.
“We’ve just got to win big I guess,” Australian speedster Sid Harvey said.
“It will be a tough review. But we’ve got to fix the little things if we want to start winning.”
The Australian women started the event in grand style against China.
Charlotte Caslick scored two tries in the opening five minutes, with Maddison Levi, Teagan Levi and Demi Hayes also scoring on a day when the mercury hit 31C in Perth.
It was Spain feeling the misery a few hours later, with 2024 women’s Sevens player of the year Maddison Levi scoring three tries in the first half to set up Australia’s powerful victory.
Australia will face a much tougher test against France in their final pool game on Saturday, but are already guaranteed a spot in the quarter-finals.
It was a far more topsy-turvy affair for the Aussie men, who trailed Argentina 26-5 with two-and-a half minutes remaining before launching an audacious comeback.
Converted tries to Harvey and Matthew Gonzalez reduced the margin to seven points with less than 90 seconds to go.
But when Australia stole a line-out after the final siren and James Turner raced over, the margin was just two points.
It meant Hayden Sargeant needed to nail the tricky conversion to level the scores, and he remained ice-cool in the moment to send the match into extra time.
But Australia’s euphoria was short-lived, with Argentinian speedster Tobias Wade finding a gap early in the golden-point period to race over for the winning try.
“I’ve been putting a lot of work into that over Christmas,” Sargeant said when asked about his clutch conversion.
“A shout out to my dad and my partner. Over the Christmas break, they kept going, ‘3-2-1’, putting a bit of pressure on me. I probably owe them that kick.”
Against South Africa, James Turner’s try gave Australia a two-point lead at the break, but two costly errors saw the result slip through their fingers.
First, Maurice Longbottom fumbled a pass close to his defensive line to gift David Brits the go-ahead try.
Then Australia missed a kick for touch with 80 seconds left that would have given them an excellent platform to snatch the win.
In one of the biggest upsets of the season, Uruguay’s men came from 17-0 down to defeat No.1 ranked Fiji 24-17.
Uruguay, who sit 10th in the rankings after two events, followed up that heroic display with a 17-12 win over New Zealand.
It marked Uruguay’s greatest ever day in the Sevens arena.
© AAP
