RUGBY SEVENS: An abundance of speed, skill and determination from the Australian women’s side was too much for South Africa to handle.
RUGBY SEVENS: An abundance of speed, skill and determination from the Australian women’s side was too much for South Africa to handle as the Aussie girls notched up an impressive 38-7 win in Saturday afternoon’s semi-final.
The Australian side will now go for gold against China after they defeated Japan 24-5 in the second semi-final.
The Aussie girls are red hot favourites to take out the Australian Youth Olympic Festival rugby sevens title after going through the tournament undefeated thus far.
The gold medal playoff will be on Saturday evening at 5:54pm.
On the men’s side of the draw, Australia qualified for the gold medal match against South Africa after a convincing 47-7 win over Tonga.
Guy Hamilton led the side around the park superbly on the back of some brutal play by Aussie big men Tepai Meoroa and Arthur Currie.
However, Australian coach Hugh Carpenter believes the boys need to improve further if they want to knock off in-form side South Africa.
“A much improved performance by the boys, however we need to step it up once again in the next match against South Africa.”
Carpenter labelled defence as the key in the gold medal match.
“We really need to back our defence against South Africa, that’s what it will probably come down to,” Carpenter said.
Earlier, the Australian men recorded a convincing 64-0 victory over China, knocking them out of the tournament. Australia simply out-muscled China, dominating possession throughout the match in a gallant team effort as eight different try-scorers went over for the Aussies.
Tonga held on in a nail-biter against Japan, defeating them 7-0 in the lowest scoring match of the tournament.
Toby Plowman
Olympics.com.au
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