Sydney Sevens 2023: Aussies lose ground as Kiwis claim gold in the men’s and women’s tournaments
Eddie Jones has made a surprise appearance at Australia’s disappointing Sydney Sevens tournament as the home nation took another hit while a close neighbour was simply breathtaking.
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The Sydney Sevens turned into a Blackout, as New Zealand claimed gold in the men’s and women’s tournaments with emphatic victories.
The Kiwis ensured they remain atop the World Series ladder in both title races, keeping their opponents scoreless while creating scintillating tries at Allianz Stadium on Sunday night.
The men smashed South Africa 38-0 in the gold medal match, just after the women had thumped France 35-0.
Australia’s men fell to eighth in the World Series standings. The Aussie women remain second to New Zealand with three tournaments remaining.
New Zealand’s men (85 points) lead South Africa (76), Samoa (68) and France (68) with six tournaments to play.
The top four-placed men’s and women’s teams will automatically qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Earlier, Australia’s women’s team received an apology for the controversial yellow card given to co-captain Charlotte Caslick that proved crucial in their quarter-final defeat.
But despite the apology, coach Tim Walsh believes the high tackle laws will continue to create issues.
After the Aussies finished fifth at the Sydney Sevens, Caslick revealed officials had contacted Walsh on Sunday morning to concede they got her sin-binning wrong, after she’d tackled a rival that was ducking low into contact.
“It’s frustrating, but we shouldn’t have been in that position anyway. We’ve got to move on, you can’t live in the past,” Walsh said.
“The rule is there, shoulder on head then what are they going to do? But are you going to stick your head down now when you start running, and get a penalty?
“We wouldn’t do that, but how do you manipulate the rules to get an advantage. Obviously it wouldn’t be appropriate.
“The disappointing thing is you have the TMOs as a risk mitigation, and they still got it wrong. So that’s the frustrating part.”
Caslick added: “The inconsistency in the refereeing at times really hurts, it’s disappointing but we can only do what we can.”
As for their ultimately failed Sydney campaign, Walsh and Caslick remained upbeat.
“Disappointing because we didn’t win, and we want to win everything,” Walsh said.
“But it’s really character-building, we’ve taken a lot out of it.”
Caslick said: “In the grand scheme of things we’re looking forward to Paris next year, securing qualification this year and then building towards that.
“We’ve learnt a lot out of this tournament, we’ve still got a really young squad, Teagan Levi was really great today, the experience she’s got from this tournament is going to be huge for her development.
“This season is all about qualification for us and we’ll remain in the top four which is our goal.”
Among the spectators at Allianz Stadium was new Wallabies coach Eddie Jones, who officially begins duties on Monday having just flown in from Japan.
“It’s like going to Twenty20 cricket, a lot of fun, a lot of ball movement, the fans have a great time,” Jones said.
Australia’s women finished fifth after hammering Fiji 36-12 in their Sunday afternoon playoff match.
The Aussies ran riot after scores were level 12-all at the break, with Caslick at the heart of the victory.
Maddison Levi scored the opening try after taking an inside ball from younger sister Teagan. It ensured Levi, with 32 tries in the series so far, maintains her lead at the top just ahead of New Zealand’s Michaela Blyde.
Fiji replied with two quick tries of their own to take a 12-7 lead.
But Caslick ran away to score a leveller seconds before the halftime siren.
Faith Nathan finished a brilliant move, started by a Sharni Williams break, to put Australia back ahead two minutes into the second half.
Williams was brought to ground on the left edge, and then Caslick drifted across field before Nathan was unleashed down the right to score, putting Australia 17-12 ahead.
Teagan Levi then orchestrated a superb individual try, grubbering past the defence and kicking ahead to score.
Caslick crossed for her second with 90 seconds remaining, running onto a pass from Sariah Paki and racing to the corner.
Lily Dick put an exclamation on the win, taking a short pass from Caslick to score with the final play of the game.
Australia’s men disappointingly finished seventh in their home tournament.
They lost 24-10 to Samoa in their fifth-place playoff match and will drop in the ladder heading to the Los Angeles tournament from February 25-26.
They’ll be without skipper Henry Hutchison, who has a suspected ACL injury that could sideline him for the year. Hutchison will have scans this week.
Men’s player Henry Paterson lamented the shock quarter-final loss to France on Saturday night that derailed their campaign, after which they clearly could not rebound.
“Every single minute of that tournament up until the France game, our focus was to win the thing and we weren’t here just to compete,” Paterson said.
“We were building towards playing the footy that can get us there so knowing we had an opportunity to win the whole thing and some of the decisions in the French game, that’ll be tough to watch back.”
France ends all Aussie hopes at Sydney Sevens
The French men defeated Australia 17-14 in a tense quarter-final that required a penalty goal after the full-time siren to advance to the semis, while Australia must compete for fifth spot in Sunday’s playoff games.
In a thrilling finish, France had all the ball in the final minutes with the scores locked 14-all.
Henry Paterson made a tackle, but then was pinged for holding on, giving France the penalty. Replacement Thomas Carol stepped up to slot the field goal over the crossbar, breaking the hearts of the home fans.
Theo Forner had skipped around Nathan Lawson to score a runaway try in the second minute, giving France an early 7-0 lead.
But the Aussies responded two minutes later when Tim Clements ran around the covering defence to level the scores.
Replacement skipper Maurice Longbottom set up Josh Turner for Australia’s second try just before the break for a 14-7 lead.
Three minutes into the second half, Forner scored his second try after a sustained attack from the Frenchmen to equal scores,
But a knock-on from Lancaster gave France the opportunity to steal victory at the death.
They were composed and assertive, emulating the feat of the women’s French team that had beaten Australia in the quarter-final earlier in the evening.
France will face New Zealand in the semi-final on Sunday, while crowd favourites Fiji will play South Africa in the other semi-final, both teams having gone through the tournament unbeaten so far.
A serious knee injury to skipper Henry Hutchison soured Australia’s campaign, including their 29-10 against Hamilton Sevens winners Argentina that sealed their quarter-final match against France.
Hutchison suddenly pulled up in the second half hopping in pain, with no player close to him, and fell to the turf before he was taken off.
He needed crutches and was forced to watch the quarter-final clash against France from the stands.
Against Argentina, James Turner’s grubber-and-gather try got the Aussies back, and then Dietrich Roache crossed in the corner just before the halftime hooter to give them a 12-5 lead.
Josh Turner scored after Hutchison was helped from the field, with the help of another kick ahead by James Turner, as Australia went ahead 17-5 with five minutes remaining.
Longbottom showed his sizzling speed with a goosestep and sprint down the sideline to extend the gap to 22-5.
Then it was 19-year-old Darby Lancaster’s turn, racing away down the other sideline for another long-range five-pointer
In their second pool match Australia’s men had defeated Canada 22-7, having trailed 7-5 at the break.
Hutchison was sin-binned in the first half for a ruck infringement and Canada took advantage of their overlap with a try in the corner.
But James Turner crossed for Australia just before halftime, and he was over again within 45 seconds of the second half to put them ahead for the first time.
Lancaster then sliced through the defence after Canada had a man sin-binned to extend Australia’s lead to 17-7.
Hutchison sealed the deal with a try in the corner at the end of the game.
DEFENDING CHAMPS SHOCK LOSS IN QUARTERSAustralia’s dreams of defending the women’s Sydney Sevens title is up in smoke after a shock quarter-final loss to France.
The hosts lost 10-5 in an absorbing, draining contest at Allianz Stadium that has booted Tim Walsh’s team out of the medal matches scheduled for Sunday.
France dominated the opening half, spending the entirety in Australia’s quarter, while the sin-binning of co-captain Charlotte Caslick increased the pressure.
Australia’s defence was tremendous, as they repelled raid after raid until the very end of the half.
A misthrown lineout from Madison Ashby allowed France to finally cross with 10 seconds left in the half, as Chloe Pelle powered over, giving her side a 5-0 lead.
Australia struggled to mount any attack in the second half and when France’s Carla Neisen scored with just over two minutes remaining, Australia needed to conjure two tries in as many minutes to stay alive.
From the kick-off, Australia went one way then the other to unleash Faith Nathan on an 85-metre run down the line to get on the scoreboard.
There were still 90 seconds remaining, and Australia won the kick-off, but a knock-on and ensuing penalty gave France the opportunity to kick the ball out after the siren to claim victory.
Australia is now relegated to a fifth place playoff on Sunday.
It was a disappointing end to the campaign after an unbeaten streak in the pool games.
Caslick reinforced why she is so important to the Australian women’s team on day two.
The co-captain, having just signed a contract extension until the end of 2027 this week, was inspirational in leading her side to another quarter-final appearance.
Australia sealed a quarter-final berth against France, after smashing Ireland 43-7 in their final pool match.
Australia led 19-7 at the break, and ran rampant in their best seven minutes of the tournament in the second stanza.
Caslick scored the opening try in the third minute of the match after Bienne Terita had initially made a burst.
One minute later, Nathan ran 60 metres for a brilliant try after a sharp in-and-away step to give Australia a 14-0 lead.
Strong defence by the Aussies forced a turnover late in the half, allowing 22-year-old Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea to ran away for the team’s third try.
Nearly three minutes into added time of the first half, Ireland finally cracked the Australian defence as Eve Higgings crashed over after a wave of attacking raids at the line.
Maddison Levi didn’t take long in the second half to add to her try-scoring tally, finishing a sweeping move from a turnover in their quarter to take Australia 24-7 up.
Caslick, who was heavily involved in playmaking and defence, had her second try moments later after Levi had dragged an Irish rival over the sideline to win the ball back.
Teagan Levi broke away for Australia’s sixth try with one minute remaining, following more strong defence from the hosts.
Sariah Paki put an emphasis on the victory by racing away following the kick-off win, planting the ball under the posts.
AUSSIES DOMINATE AS KIWI SON OF A GUN SHOWS OUT AT SYDNEY 7S
There is a new Spencer on the block, and if his debut is anything to go by he could be haunting Australian rugby for years to come.
Payton Spencer, the 18-year-old son of All Blacks great Carlos Spencer, announced himself as a future star at the Sydney Sevens with a memorable first match at Allianz Stadium.
Picked in the Kiwi squad straight out of high school, Spencer scored two tries in his debut match during New Zealand’s 45-7 win over Uruguay on Friday afternoon.
His performance evoked memories of famous dad “King Carlos”, who carved up defences in the late 1990s and early 2000s as the All Blacks and Blues five-eighth.
Spencer didn’t demonstrate the trademark flick passes or chip kicks of his father, but did demonstrate the deft hole-running and speed that his lineage has blessed him with.
“I haven’t played that much sevens, I’ve mainly only played 15s so to get this opportunity to play sevens and be in that professional environment straight away is pretty incredible,” Spencer said.
With New Zealand leading the World Series standings and hungry to win their first tournament in Sydney – they have two silvers and one bronze from the four previous events – Spencer’s introduction is a major boost to their championship aspirations.
While the Kiwis had an easy first-up win, Australia was made to work hard in their opening match against Great Britain, scraping home 12-7.
Aussie ace Dietrich Roache split the defence to score the opening try three minutes in, and it appeared the home team would cruise to victory.
But Robbie Ferguson crossed on the halftime siren after sustained pressure, giving the Brits a 7-5 lead at the break.
Henry Paterson reinstated Australia’s lead two minutes into the second half, but then they had to defend resiliently to hold Britain out as they mounted raid after raid.
A Maurice Longbottom turnover in Australia’s 22 proved crucial, and the squad will be relieved to survive, with pool matches against Canada and Ireland to come on Saturday.
Maddison Levi starred for Australia’s women, scoring four tries in the 46-0 drubbing of Spain in their second match.
Levi ensured she remains the top try-scorer in the women’s series ahead of New Zealand’s Michaela Blyde, with a superb performance.
“It’s easy to attack when I have a team like that helping me and setting me up,” Levi said.
Australia lead their group, but the toughest match is yet to come against Ireland on Saturday (1.56pm) which will decide the winner of Pool C.
Australia’s women began with a 28-12 win over Brazil, with Bienne Terita scored the opening try in both halves.
After the first, Thalia da Silva Costa replied for Brazil with a smart individual try, beating Terita on the inside with a step and racing over to level the scores.
But Madison Ashby soon had Australia back in the lead with a runaway try, ensuring the hosts held a 14-7 halftime lead.
Terita’s second try at the start of the second half gave Australia breathing room, and Teagan Levi ensured victory with a breakout try.
Women’s series leaders New Zealand looked in ominous form with a first up 48-0 win over Papua New Guinea.
WILL SIBLING SEVENS STARS CROSS CODES BACK TO AFL?
It will be abundantly clear where the supporters of the Levi sisters will be this weekend – 80 of them will be wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the images of Maddison and Teagan at Allianz Stadium.
The sibling stars of the Australian women’s sevens team are attracting a whole new group of fans to the sport since switching from the AFLW, where they were contracted to the Gold Coast Suns.
Maddison claimed the World Series rookie of the year award in her debut season last year, and is already the leading tryscorer in the 2022-23 series after three events.
Now, the sisters will finally get to play in front of a home audience at the Sydney Sevens, to be played from Friday to Sunday – with supporters coming from Melbourne, and a busload from their junior AFL club in Queensland.
“Mum bought 80 shirts with our faces on it. She had messages from everyone coming saying, ‘Can I get one?’” Maddison Levi said.
“She talks all the time about how we have family and friends who’ve never watched Rugby Sevens before, but because of that mutual connection with Teags and I in the team, they can’t get enough. They sit and watch it all the time.
“They’re so keen to see it, so to be able to have them come and watch it in real life, the home country and supporters, that’s how a lot of us players got influenced to play, watching rugby.
“To put on a show and do the same thing is pretty exciting.
“My friends and family have been with us through the highs and lows, watched us kick the footy around on the back of a swamp, not much going on. So for them to watch us at the Sydney Sevens is going to be really cool.”
Levi, 20, and 19-year-old Teagan grew up with a very different dream; to become world-famous dancers.
“I used to dance, so all my old dance friends are coming to watch,” she said.
“I did all styles, acro (a combination of classical dance and acrobatics), jazz, hip-hop. I originally dreamt of travelling the world dancing, now I’m travelling the world doing something completely different.
“If it wasn’t for me doing dancing, touch footy, as a kid – my mum and dad never forced us into anything – it’s paid off with the agility and being light on your feet, and the ball skills and aerial skills from AFL, I wouldn’t be the athlete I am if I didn’t have a dabble in all these sports.
“It’s probably the biggest piece of advice I can give to kids now, don’t put yourself in one sport and expect to excel. Play a bit of everything, and then you’ll fall in love with one sport.”
Levi played with the Suns in the 2021 AFLW season, while Teagan was their No. 1 draft pick before both switched codes.
While Levi has left the door open on a return to Aussie rules, it won’t be before next year’s Olympic Games.
“It’s definitely still an option down the track, they’re probably my biggest supporters,” Levi said.
“They were the ones who definitely helped make this decision. Teags and I definitely sat down, days of crying and stressing, I don’t like to let people down.
“Now I look back at it, why was a crying? AFL is always an option on the cards.
“I’m grateful to have played that one season. But the opportunity to represent your country, travel the world with my best friends and my sister is pretty exciting.
“Everything happens for a reason, right now this is where I’m meant to be. And the 2024 Olympics on the cards is pretty exciting.
“Hopefully I’ll get to step on that flight to Paris with my sister, that will be an experience in itself.”
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Originally published as Sydney Sevens 2023: Aussies lose ground as Kiwis claim gold in the men’s and women’s tournaments
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