Hosts Australia had much to celebrate on day two of HSBC SVNS in Perth as the HBF Park crowd cheered both their teams through to Sunday’s semi-finals and a chance of glory on home soil.
Australia’s men overcame Olympic champions France 24-12 in an end-to-end encounter to book a semi-final berth against South Africa. Cape Town winners South Africa beat Dubai trophy-holders Fiji 19-0 in a one-sided quarter-final.
Australia men’s try scorer Maurice Longbottom said: “It's crazy, especially after yesterday's close games coming up short. We knew we weren't far away, we just had to dig a little bit deeper and fine-tune a few things and go from there. We were lucky enough to get some good results to bounce our way into tomorrow."
Meanwhile Dubai finalists Spain booked a third semi-final spot in as many tournaments, where they will face reigning tournament champions Argentina.
After their heroics on Friday, Pool C giant-killers Uruguay endured a more difficult afternoon’s HSBC SVNS Series work in Perth, as a business-like Spain ended their hopes of a Cup run in the quarter-finals with a convincing 38-0 victory. Argentina closed out a difficult quarter-final against Great Britain 27-14 after going into the break two points down.
Australia’s women continued to conquer all before them with a dominant 35-0 quarter-final win over Japan to set up a semi-final clash with Olympic silver medallists Canada who saw off a valiant effort from Brazil 27-5.
Recently crowned HSBC World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year Maddison Levi scored twice to take her overall total for the tournament to nine, the Australian speedster having set the record for tries in a single tournament with 15 in Dubai last month.
Following the quarter-final victory Levi said: “Awesome result for the girls to make the semis. We knew Japan were going to be tough but we were able to hold the ball and put some points on. We’ll have to be good tomorrow against Canada to make the final.”
Current SVNS leaders New Zealand continued to impose themselves on the competition by sweeping aside China 29-0 in the quarter-finals. The Olympic champions will face France in the semi-finals after they beat Olympic bronze medallists the USA 19-7 in a tense quarter-final.
The finals day action kicks off at 1.30pm local time on Sunday with the semi-finals at 3.05pm and the men’s and women’s finals at 7.35pm and 8.11pm respectively.
In a landmark first, the women’s final will be the last showpiece match of the tournament, taking centre stage on Sunday evening and bringing down the curtain on HSBC SVNS Perth.
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