Australia’s 43-5 rugby win over Uganda follows 62-7 defeat of Sri Lanka

AUSTRALIA has blitzed Uganda 43-5 in the Commonwealth Games rugby sevens after earlier romping to victory in its opening match against Sri Lanka.

Emma Ecodu of Uganda outpaces Con Foley of Australia to score a try.

ABOUT the only good Idi Amin ever did for Uganda was to introduce the sport of rugby and even that solitary boon was looking more like all his other calamities after Australia blitzed its national side 43-5 in Commonwealth Games sevens today.

Michael Okorach might have had the last word for Uganda when he scored its solitary try after the bell at Ibrox Stadium but otherwise it was the Australians doing all the talking in another comprehensive if virtually meaningless pool-round victory.

Greg Jeloudev racked up the easiest four-try haul he is ever likely to notch in the international arena — grabbing the fourth of them with still three minutes remaining in the 14-minute contest — as Australia added a 43-5 win to its 62-7 demolition of an underpowered Sri Lanka earlier in the day.

The two victories guaranteed Australia’s advance to tomorrow’s quarter-finals irrespective of the outcome of their final and easily most difficult pool match against England later tonight British time, but captain Ed Jenkins was adamant his side would not be easing up.

“We’re through regardless of what happens but it’s important we finish off the day on a positive note,” Jenkins said.

“We’ve had easy competition so far but we haven’t really played together since the London tournament a few months back and it was good to blow the cobwebs out.”

Unlike Sri Lanka, the Ugandans at least mounted some mildly credible defence to put Ed Jenkins’ side under some pressure — with Emma Ecodu even scrambling to make a brilliant corner-posting tackle to deny young playmaker Tom Lucas a try — but generally they had no answer to the Australians’ physicality and support play.

The modest standard of the opposition magnified every Australian shortcoming and coach Geraint John, off to a flyer in his first competition as Michael O’Connor’s replacement, would surely have chided his players about the drop-off in intensity that led to the two tries they conceded across their opening Pool D matches.

The Ibrox crowd saved its biggest cheer of the morning for Sri Lanka’s solitary try, a well-worked crossing by Sandun Herath from a tap penalty early in the second half, but otherwise it was one-way traffic — with Australia in the express lane.

In all Ed Jenkins’ side ran in 10 tries and had it not been for the solitary missed tackle that allowed Herath’s try and a clumsy knock-on, this was as close to a perfect exhibition of sevens rugby as one could hope to see, albeit in a total mismatch of professionals against amateurs.

The first half basically consisted of this: James Stannard drop-off, Australia using its height — particularly that of exciting teenager Pama Fou — to win the tap-back followed almost immediately by a try, more often than not by their star player Cam Clark, who finished with a hat-trick of tries as part of his 27-point contribution.

The mere lopsidedness of the contest made it difficult to evaluate the Australian performance but certainly John could hardly have faulted his side’s enthusiasm, support play and crisp decision-making.

Still, it’s an easy contest when, if all else fails, the ball-carrier needs only to engage the defence and then use his superior strength and weight to simply power through the line.

Gold medal favourites New Zealand flexed their muscles with a 39-0 demolition of John’s old team, Canada, in the opening match of the tournament, extending the Kiwis unbroken run in Commonwealth Games competition to 25 straight matches.

But how close host nation Scotland came to ending that sequence, storming from 17-0 down at half-time to just go down 17-14 as the Kiwis were reduced to five defenders because of professional fouls.