Heartbreak for 7s men in brutal world champs near-miss
Murray Wenzel |
Australia’s women’s sevens outfit will wage an Olympics redemption mission after securing a World Championship semi-final duel with Canada, after the men were cruelly denied a podium shot of their own.
Tim Walsh’s side were unbeaten in three games at the Los Angeles series finale on Saturday (Sunday AEST) and will face the Canadians for a spot in the final.
The match-up comes less than a year after Canada stunned the red-hot Australians in the Paris Olympics semi-finals.
New Zealand and USA will meet in the other semi-final to complete a mirror image of the final four who fought for medals in Paris last July.
“We’ve got to go back and review Canada,” Australian star Maddison Levi said.
“They’re a tough team and especially in finals anything can happen.”
The Australians were able to overcome a knee injury to veteran Demi Hayes early on the opening day before securing victories over Fiji, USA and France.
“It’s good for our young girls to play some more minutes,” Levi said.
“This year is all about experience and I think we’re building as a team.”
Australia’s men were a blade of grass from joining them in the final four after a gutting 21-19 loss to New Zealand that went three minutes into extra time.
Henry Hutchison barged through two defenders and thought he’d scored the match-winning try, only for officials to determine there wasn’t conclusive evidence of a grounding on review.
They had earlier upset No.2 and No.3 seeds Fiji and Spain, winning 15-14 and 15-10 respectively with James Turner starring.
Australia missed out on a top-four berth by just two points on differential after three of the four teams were locked on seven points.
Instead they’ll play France in the fifth-placed play-off.
New Zealand will play South Africa in one men’s semi-final with Spain sneaking ahead of Australia to face Argentina in the other.
AAP
