Australia's women bounce back to book sevens semi berth
Australia's women have bounced back from their shock loss to Brazil to surge into the semi-finals of the SVNS world series tournament in Vancouver.
The highly-fancied side set up a final-four meeting with top-ranked New Zealand by recording back-to-back wins on day two of the Canadian tournament.
They downed the hosts and Great Britain to land a meeting with the Kiwis on Monday morning (AEDT), while Japan and Fiji play off in the other semi.
The Australians made life tough for themselves in their final pool match against Canada, trailing 14-0 early before piling on 35 unanswered points to set up a quarter-final clash with Great Britain. Tia Hinds crossed twice to get the Aussies in front while tries to Ruby Nicholas, Faith Nathan and Kahli Henwood added to the scoreboard. Australia lifted a gear and showed their class in the quarter-final with Teagan Levi and Kahli Henwood bagging tries to go ahead 14-7.
Further tries to Faith Nathan and Charlotte Caslick put the game beyond reach with the second-ranked side comfortably through to the final four.
Australia's passing game is absolutely flawless! 🔥🇦🇺#HSBCSVNS | #HSBCSVNSVAN pic.twitter.com/nmPTGSCik0
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) February 23, 2025
"We faced Brazil last night and they played unbelievably well but we reviewed that this morning and had great games against Canada and Great Britain and we're in the semi-finals so that's all that counts," said former skipper Caslick. "Over the weekend we've been able to give a lot of girls game time and some of our less experienced girls are getting a lot of minutes and you can see that growth from game to game with them. We're looking forward to the semi-final."
In the men's event, Australia squared off with South Africa in the quarters after beating the Blitzboks 17-12 in extra time early on Sunday morning in their final pool match.
South Africa raced to a 17-0 lead before the Aussies hit back with a try through Ben Dowling on the right edge.
Another try to Josh Turner at the end gave his team a sniff but the side will rue some costly turnovers with possession in hand and their kick restarts, going down 17-14.
Australia will face France in the seventh-place play-off.
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