Hong Kong Sevens: Australia crash out of men’s competition after USA’s five-star performance
- Perry Baker scores twice in 24-5 rout of defending champions in final pool game, before suffering serious shoulder injury
- Defeat knocks Australia out of quarter-finals contention and they now face 9th-place play-off against Hong Kong
Australia’s defence of their Hong Kong Sevens title was ended by a tidal wave of American tries on Saturday.
The USA ran in five scores in a 24-5 rout, knocking their opponents down to third in Pool C, behind themselves and Spain on points difference.
Perry Baker scored twice after David Still’s try had cancelled out a first-minute strike from Australia’s Dietrich Roache. Baker later suffered a serious shoulder injury that could also bring his tournament to an end.
Malacchi Esdale had the final word, crossing a minute from the end to put the exclamation point on a thumping win for the US.
Topping the group earned the Americans a quarter-final against Team GB on Sunday, while the Spanish will take on the French.
Australia skipper Nick Malouf was understandably upset at the result, which after a 12-7 win over Spain earlier in the day looked unlikely at best.
“Yeah, that was very disappointing, not the sort of performance you want to put out,” Malouf said. “As you’d expect, disappointed, it’s not what we came here to do, so devastated.
“But we weren’t just good enough, we’ll have to go and watch the game back and make sure we’re better next time.”
Heavily tipped to be the fourth side to enter the knockout stages unbeaten, alongside, Fiji, France and New Zealand, Australia now cannot finish any better than ninth. They will take on Hong Kong tomorrow in that play-off game.
Their departure opens the door for Fiji to put the ghosts of last year’s final loss to rest. Wins over Canada and Argentina saw them top Pool D, and Fiji now face South Africa for a place in the semi-finals.
New Zealand, meanwhile, have possibly the hardest test of all in the last eight in their clash with Argentina.
Still, having only conceded three tries in the pool stages, the Kiwis are favourites to win it all.
