Hong Kong Sevens 2023: Australia make promising start to men’s title defence as they ‘chase that feeling of winning’ again
- They beat Japan to dispel what coach John Manenti calls a ‘little bit of anxiousness about getting a performance out to start off’
- New Zealand begin comfortably against Kenya, but seeds Ireland are pipped by South Africa in one of several close contests
Winning titles can put a target on your back, but Australia’s head coach John Manenti felt his players carried the mantle of defending champions as well as could be hoped, after starting their Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens with victory over Japan.
They made the statement he was looking for in a 26-5 success in pool C, fairly bursting out of the blocks. First-half tries from Maurice Longbottom, Dietrich Roache and Matthew Gonzalez, who got two, blew away any possible nerves.
“Japan are an improving side, so I’m really happy to kick off with that,” Manenti said. “There’s a lot of talk around, here and at home, about defending the title. It’s hard not to, but we’re trying not to focus on that.
“November was a while ago, but you can’t hide from it and for the boys there was a little bit of anxiousness about getting a performance out to start off. You can start those games nervy and get in a dogfight, so I was pleased we scored some early tries.”
While the Australians cannot dwell on November, they are aiming to recapture some of the same qualities.
“In that tournament we had three or four come-from-behind victories where it wasn’t going that well but we managed to find a way,” Manenti said.
“It was far from a perfect tournament but we found ways, and that’s probably our identity as a group: just hanging in there tough and creating those opportunities.”
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Try-scorer Roache was among that group and has not forgotten what saw them through last time. He was also reminded of the magic of Hong Kong.
“It feels amazing – the vibes here are good,” he said. “We have good memories here and as soon as we got to the stadium we knew we were ready to go.
“I think the message is to remember the hard work it took to get us through to that final and remember how hard it was to get there. We’ve got to put ourselves in that position again.
“We love to say that we chase that feeling of winning, and that’s something we’ll be chasing this weekend. I feel confident. The boys are keen and we’ve done a lot of hard work the last few weeks, so we’re ready to show it.”
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On a day of close matches, the most comfortable margin was for New Zealand, who beat Kenya 29-5.
The last time they met the Kenyans in Hong Kong, five months earlier, things looked very different for the Kiwis.
It was breakfast time on the Sunday, the stadium was almost empty, and they were in the unusual position of playing for the minor trophies, after – for the first time ever in Hong Kong – failing to reach the Cup quarter-finals.
Having recovered since then to lead the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, they showed flashes of that form, Akuila Rokolisoa starring with two of their five tries. They don’t fancy that breakfast slot this Sunday.
In other knife-edge encounters, pool D seeds Ireland were pipped 14-7 by South Africa, Fiji overcame Samoa 12-7 in pool A despite their rivals having the better of the action, and Great Britain outwrestled Uruguay 14-12 in pool B.
The ferocity of the competition was not lost on Manenti.
“Spain knocked off USA, so we’ll have a hell of a game [first on Saturday], then USA will have everything to play for,” he said.
“So we’ve got two big games, and if we get through those, we can start looking at what might be and what Sunday looks like.”
