Australia come agonisingly close to Dubai double
Australia’s outstanding rugby women have powered to a second straight Dubai Sevens trophy in successive weeks, while their male counterparts fell agonisingly short in their final.
The Australian women maintained their dominant unbeaten sequence over the past two weeks on Saturday to lift the title with a convincing 15-5 triumph in the final over Fiji, who they also beat in last weekend’s showdown.
The Aussie men, who had also reached their final unbeaten, were then left crestfallen at coming so close to ending the remarkable winning run of South Africa’s brilliant ‘Blitzboks’ before going down 10-7.
Two tries from Madison Ashby and another from player of the final Faith Nathan were enough for the Australian women to largely control affairs in the final against the ‘Fijiana’, just as they had done in their 22-7 win the previous week.
Charlotte Caslick, the star in that previous final, was again outstanding after Demi Hayes’ side had been reduced to six in th e second half with four minutes left because of a harsh sin-binning of Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea for a deliberate knock-on.
Caslick’s remarkable workrate saw her earn a crucial late turnover to ease the Aussies’ path to their first back-to-back world series titles for nearly four years.
Earlier on Saturday, they had wrapped up a 26-17 win over Russia in their final pool game.
And over five matches across the two days, the Australians’ dominance had been clear as they racked up 168 points, featuring 26 tries, including six from Nathan, who scored in every match, and another half-dozen from Caslick.
“I’m so proud of the girls. That’s exactly how we wanted to start this series and considering that it’s the first back-to-back series ever in Dubai, we’re so stoked,” said Hayes.
“We just kept to our structure, and knew exactly how we wanted to play, with width and making them run lots,” added the captain, whose side suffocated their opponents with non -stop pressure in the opening half as they led 10-0.< /p>
Dubai has proved a happy hunting ground for the Australians after the COVID pandemic forced the cancellation of the planned world series event in South Africa and ended with the UAE capital staging a tournament two weeks running.
The South African men also completed the Dubai ‘double’ but even as they maintained their incredible record of 24 successive wins across four consecutive events, no-one came closer to ruining the streak than the Australians who were still hammering away for a winning score in the dying seconds.
After the South Africans had gone ahead within 45 seconds through Siviwe Soyizwapi, Brumbies’ Corey Toole scooted over for his sixth try of the week as Australia squeezed ahead 7-5.
But a dazzling bit of skill from JC Pretorius saw him race over in the second half for the decisive score which makes the ‘Blitzboks’ the first team to win three successive Dubai titles since New Zealand in 2002.
Earlier, Australia had beaten Ireland 24-12 in the quarter-finals and crushed Argentina 40-0 in their biggest-ever semi-final rout.
New Zealand and Australia would normally have hosted the next legs of the sevens world series but those events have been cancelled and replaced by two events in Spain in January.
Comments on RugbyPass
One that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
3 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
109 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
1 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
3 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
3 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
109 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
3 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to commentsNRL players don’t have anywhere near the number of Tests. Some people would be happy having Rest Homes full if 40 yo ex-players walking, or hobbling more like it, into walls. It’s just a game!
4 Go to commentsNOW Razor is worried about ABs getting injured or overplayed! Didn’t bother him last year. He happily played his AB Crusaders.
4 Go to commentsWhat is the World Rugby U20 players born year.
2 Go to commentsMuch like the Chiefs finally gave up waiting for Atu Moli to ever not be injured, you have to wonder if the Chiefs and Crusaders will let Josh Lord and Ethan Blackadder go next season. They’re being well paid to sit in the injury ward every year. Better off putting those funds towards someone who might actually play.
7 Go to commentsShowed better basic skills than some nz Super sides, who probably would have botched some of those backline moves. This tournament really is too short though. Needs more teams, or have them play two rounds to properly prepare them for the near full-time NH U20 sides.
4 Go to commentsGood grief it’s only six months. Probably just upset it’s not an established kiwi entering their prime they can “project” into green to join the rest.
3 Go to commentsGood player but far from being best in the world. That's an exaggeration. Perhaps Best in world by Northern Hemisphere standards and biasis but certainly not Southern Hemi standards
3 Go to commentsWell one thing about World Cup knock out rounds and Ireland is very clear: they won’t be getting ahead of themselves in ‘27! Because making it beyond the QF is well and truly ‘IN THEIR HEADS’ now…😉
109 Go to commentsHas this guy been dope tested? Sounds like a case of “roid rage”.
1 Go to comments