The Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens team has fallen to England in the Cup quarter finals of the HSBC Singapore Sevens.
Australia went undefeated on day one but fell to England in a tough quarter final, 19-31.
In the battle for fifth Australia fought hard against New Zealand, with neither team unable to break the deadlock of 22-22 in 14 minutes. The match went to golden point extra time with the All Black Sevens finding the try line to advance to fifth place final.
Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens Head Coach, Tim Walsh said: “The tournament was an improvement and there were some positive signs for the team and individuals.
“There is no such thing as luck - you earn opportunities and we are learning to play smarter and harder."
Australia will return home to prepare for the final two rounds of the HSBC Sevens World Series.
Australia 19 was defeated by England 31
England were the first to score in the quarter final, taking the first points in the opening minute of the match. England extended their lead with a try to Kerr in the third minute as they made Australia pay out wide. A brilliant individual effort by Simon Kennewell brought the first points to the men in gold with the winger powering his way through to the line twice before the break to level the scores. In the last seconds of the first half England managed to cut through the Australian line to re-take the lead heading into the break.
England showed their experience and speed in the second half, pulling away from the Aussies with patient attack that lead to points. Tries to Dan Norton and England captain, Tom Mitchell pulled England away to a three try advantage that would ultimately be Australia’s undoing. A late try to Lewis Holland lowered the gap but would prove to be enough for England to advance to the Semi Finals.
Australia 22 was defeated by New Zealand 27
New Zealand’s Joe Ravouvou powered his way through the defence to score All Blacks Sevens first try of the match and take a 0-5 lead. New Zealand went over again off a strong passage of play to double their lead to 0-10. Australia struck back through Jeral Skelton, who dived over the line, beating the cover defence to lower the gap to 5-10. Joe Ravouvou added more pain for Australia with his second try of the match but the men in gold fought back with a try to Josh Coward to rein the Kiwis, 10-17.
Australia struck first in the second half, scoring through Maurice Longbottom who picked up the ball of the side of a breakdown and ran away untouched to score in the corner and take the score to 15-17. Australia hammered New Zealand’s line for multiple phases but were unable to get points out of their territorial domination. New Zealand scored on the bounce to extend their lead to 15-22. Refusing to give up, the Aussie 7s fought hard against New Zealand with Lewis Holland, putting over Maurice Longbottom in the corner. Josh Coward nailed the difficult conversion to level the scores at 22-22. Despite a late surge by Australia, the match couldn’t be decided in regular time taking things to golden point extra time.
