The Australian Men’s Sevens team have finished the 2016/17 sevens series in sixth place, following the final leg in London.
Australia were defeated by the USA in their Cup quarter-final before beating New Zealand by 40-7 in the fifth place semi-final.
Australia couldn’t finish it off with a win though, as they went down to South Africa 28-17.
Australia dominated the early possession against New Zealand and it didn’t take Tim Anstee long to score the opener under the posts.
The lead didn’t last long though as Tone Ng Shiu was the beneficiary of a lighting New Zealand break, to level the scores.
Some slick hands from Australia sent Anstee away down the left edge, with the forward showing a turn of speed before passing back inside for Liam McNamara to grab the five-pointer and give Australia a 14-7 lead at the break.
James Stannard got things rolling in the second half bursting out of the blocks in the second half, starting the play on Australia’s 40 metre mark before finishing off a top team try to extend the lead to 19-7.
Dylan Pietsch the next Australian to join the scoresheet as an acrobatic dive in the right corner earned the 18-year old his first try of the weekend before the Aussies blitzed New Zealand with late tries to Simon Kennewell and Anstee.
They then fell to South Africa despite being level at halftime thanks to tries to John porch and Kennewell.
The Blitzboks scored again though to retake the lead before Australia closed the gap to make it 21-17 through Alex Gibbon before Rosko Specman closed it out for South Africa with a runaway try on full-time.
Coach Andy Friend was happy with the endeavour shown by the team.
“I thought the boys did really well to bounce back and put 40 points on New Zealand, who have been a really tough team for us to beat,” Friend said.
“And then we had the chance to beat the current World Champions at the end and for all bar the last 30 seconds, I thought we were going to win that. A disappointing day with positive signs but we finished sixth at the tournament and sixth for the season so it’s probably a fitting result.
Scotland were the eventual winners in London as they defeated hosts England 12-7 in a tense final at Twickenham.
