Try-scoring machine Maddison Levi has added another hat-trick to her collection – but it was the rare match that she failed to score in at the Cape Town Sevens which really demonstrated the strength-in-depth of Australia’s rugby women.
Levi, who scored a record-breaking 15 in a single World Series tournament to set up the triumph in Dubai last weekend, carried on where she’d left off, her treble in the 45-5 win over Brazil launching her team towards Sunday’s semi-finals and potential back-to-back titles.
Later on Saturday, though, Levi didn’t get on the scoresheet – remarkably for the first time in 27 matches – but the Australians still beat Canada 26-10 to guarantee their progression to the last-four.
Instead, that match simply showcased the team’s resilience after they had lost two players, Tia Hinds and Sariah Paki, to yellow cards in the first half and were, for more than a minute, trying to stem Canadian attacks with just five players. It was just the tonic required after the Canadians broke Australia’s hearts in the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics.
Not only did they survive that but even when still a player down, they struck while short-handed with a try in the corner from the returning Hinds.
By the second half, Australia were back in full flow as it was Canada’s turn to defend with six after a yellow card, but Paki, Heidi Dennis, who’d earlier scored against Brazil, and debutant Mackenzie Davis all raced over for tries.
Charlotte Caslick, Australia’s former captain, admitted: “Our work-on for the tournament has been discipline so I guess (losing two players to yellow cards) wasn’t really sticking to that, but we worked hard for each other and hung in there until we got both players back on the field.”
Earlier, Levi, the 22-year-old world sevens player of the year, had been unstoppable in the rout of Brazil, with captain Bella Nasser, Faith Nathan and Piper Simons also flying over for the champions.
In the semi-finals, Tim Walsh’s side will meet the USA (Sunday 10:34pm AEDT), doubtless with a point to prove after the Americans won their Olympic bronze-medal match in Paris.
Olympic champions New Zealand, who lost the Dubai final to Australia, will play France in the other semi.
But while the women continued to flourish, Australia’s men’s team made another early exit in the main competition, failing to make the semis after the huge shock of losing to Kenya 19-12 to kick off the event.Australia squandered a 12-0 lead after first-half tries for James Turner and Hayden Sargeant, but the match was transformed when Aden Ekanayake was sin-binned after giving away a penalty try.
A try in the final 90 seconds was enough for Kenya to cause the upset of the championships.
It left Australia having to beat Dubai runners-up Spain by more than seven points, but they succumbed 19-14, a try for Henry Paterson and a debut five-pointer for James McGregor being answered by three for the Spanish, who set up a semi-final with hosts South Africa.
In the other semi, Dubai champions Fiji will meet Olympic champions France in another re-run of the Paris final.
