Australia knocked-out of Olympic Rugby Sevens by South Africa side they thrashed in group stages

AUSTRALIA have been bundled out of the Rio Olympic men’s rugby sevens tournament by South Africa in a 22-5 quarter-final defeat.

A DEVASTATED Australian sevens side were knocked out of medal contention medal this morning but the Aussie influence will still be felt in Olympic semi-finals via the tournament’s giant-killers, Japan.

The Japanese continued their spectacular run in Rio by beating France in the quarter-final and booking a last-four clash with Fiji tomorrow.

Their success is amazing enough but it was put in further context by the sight of Australia and New Zealand both failing to progress past the quarters, beaten by South Africa and Fiji respectively.

Australia's Con Foley, left, defends a try attempt by South Africa's Juan de Jongh.

Australia beat the Blitzboks in their last pool game but were outclassed 22-5 later in the day, and the injury-hit Kiwis lost to Great Britain and the Fijians to end their tournament and long stretch of world dominance.

But Japan were the side on everyone’s lips. The world no.15 team were not even a regular team on the world series in 2015-16, and their own players expressed suprise at the fact they’d made it so far.

Australia's Henry Hutchison, front, scores a try during the men's rugby sevens match.

It turns out Australia’s assistance was a key factor, according to New Zealand-raised Japanese player Lomano Lemeki.

“What helped us most was we had a two-week camp with the Aussie team in Australia, two weeks prior to coming here,” Lemeki revealed.

“We learned a lot and we even won a few games, which was good for us. We stayed at Narrabeen.”

The Japanese played seven games against Australia and won two.

“We obviously gave them too much training, maybe we shouldn’t have invited them to that training camp,” Australian captain Ed Jenkins said.

“No, look they have done really well. They have worked hard.”

Augustine Pulu of New Zealand in action during the Men's Quarter-final 1.

While Japan were jubilant, and Fiji relieved after a narrow win over the Kiwis, Australia were left rueing a sluggish first day and a lack of ball security in their quarter-final.

“We’re devastated,” said Jenkins.

“we have put a lot of hard work in ... over the last few years to get to this point and to bow out so early, it’s shattering. It probably hasn’t even sunk in yet. We bounced back well after yesterday’s performance to get the win over them this morning but a completely different South African side turned up tonight.

“It just goes to show how tight the competition is for the men’s side. It’s has been a funny old tournament with how many upsets have been in the mix. New Zealand are sitting on 1 from 4 so far. It goes to show how tight this competiition really is. Anyone on its day can walk away with this gold medal.”

Fiji's Savenaca Rawaca runs with the ball.

New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens bemoaned a big injury toll that saw him lose Sonny Bill Williams, Joe Webber and Scott Curry.

“I won’t use injuries as ane excuse but whatever team siuffers injuries in a big tournament like this, the dynamics of your team changes in a massive way,” he said.

“​It has been an up and down tournament for us, in terms of consistency. We lacked that at times, off to slow starts and pulling our way back into games.

“Obviously disappointing to lose it (against Fiji). We were in with a chance right until the end. Probably some calls didn’t go our way. We will have to look at the review and see what they were. I felt from the players perspective they were hard done by.”

Japan's players celebrates winning the men's rugby sevens match against France at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Originally published as Australia knocked-out of Olympic Rugby Sevens by South Africa side they thrashed in group stages