Australia have got their 2017/18 women’s sevens campaign off to a flying start, winning the series opener after thrashing the United States 34-0 in Dubai.
The Rio Olympic champions were undefeated in their three pool matches on Thursday before beating England and Canada in the quarter and semi-finals respectively. The US had a shock last-eight win over New Zealand before beating Russia to qualify for the decider.
Emma Tonegato, who was named player of the final, opened the scoring before co-captain Sharni Williams added a second. Evania Pelite ensured Australia headed into the break with a three-try buffer and Emilee Cherry didn’t take long to score her second when proceedings resumed.
Dominique du Toit completed the rout with a late double.
Williams was impressed with the performance, the side’s first tournament win since Atlanta last year.
“We’re absolutely ecstatic with that win. It’s been a long time coming since that last gold medal,” she said.
“The girls have worked extremely hard in the pre-season and it’s great to get the rewards for that.”
Australia’s men booked their quarter-final spot despite going down to Fiji in the match of the day.
The Australians scored in the first minute through Sam Myers, Fiji replied and they went tit-for-tat to halftime with Fiji ahead 14-12.
The same happened in a cracking second half as Australia scored first, and Fiji levelled to 21-21 with Jerry Tuwai involved for the third time with the steal, weaving run and offload to substitute John Stewart. Stewart also scored the winner to make it 26-19.
Australia will face England on Saturday.
The series next heads to Sydney over the Australia Day weekend from January 26-28.