Aussies fall to rampant USA on Day One in Las Vegas

Sat, Mar 3, 2018, 6:28 AM
AAP
by AAP
The Australian men's sevens team got their campaign off to a winning start against Spain
The Australian men's sevens team got their campaign off to a winning start against Spain

The Australian men's sevens team have been brought back to earth at the Las Vegas sevens after being being steamrolled 28-7 by the USA in their final pool match of Day One.

The Aussies struggled to get their hands on the ball at any stage of the first half and were down 21-0 at the break.

Perry Baker and Mark Iosefo were the major party spoilers for the Aussies as they both sored two tries each and carried the ball with lots of venom.

A plea from head coach Andy Friend at the break to respect possession and get back to doing the simple things well did have some effect but Baker scored his second, and 152nd try in his world series career, two minutes after halftime.

The Australians eventually got on the scorecard with a try to Dylan Peitsch in thre 12th minute after a movement that went close to 80 metres.

They will now play Samoa in their final pool match early on Day Two for the chance to remain alive in the cup competition.

The Samoans have performed well on Day One and will be no pushover when they play at 8.26am on Sunday.

Australia v Spain

Two tries from Ben O'Donnell led the the way as the Australian men's sevens team got their Las Vegas campaign off to a good start with a 24-0 win over Spain.

O'Donnell crossed twice in varying circumstances as the Aussies generally outclassed the Spaniards and he has now accumulated 21 tries in this season's world series and sits third on the overall try scorers lists.

Head Coach Andy Friend would have been pleased with the effort of his team as they worked hard to get rid of any rust after their break since they won the bronze medal at the New Zealand leg of the series in Hamilton.

O'Donnell opened the scoring after some good work from Tom Connor, but he would have been thankful for some good work over the ball from Jesse Parahi who looks fit and ready to compete well here in Las Vegas.

The score was 12-0 at the break and another O'Donnell score pushed the score out to 17-0 before Tom Lucas got a try with a nicely taken chip and regather effort.

The Aussie bench players kept the pressure on Spain for much of the second half and contributed significantly to the overall effort.

James Stannard was another to show flashes of skill and sevens nouse thoughout the 14 minutes.

The Australian women's sevens team is also in Las Vegas playing a series of warm up games for the next leg of their world series.

They are playing the USA team in a number of games and after two games the series is all locked up at one game each with the Aussies winning the first encounter 29-10 but losing the second 26-12.

SCORES

Pool A

Kenya 14 France 19

Fiji 38 Russia 0

Kenya 19 Russia 12

Fiji 33 France 5

Pool B

England 40 Canada 12

South Africa 26 Wales 21

England 33 Wales 12

South Africa 19 Canada 12

Pool C

Samoa 12 USA 26

Australia 24 Spain 0

Samoa 29 Spain 14

Australia 7 USA 28
   
Pool D

Scotland 19 Argentina 21

New Zealand 28 Uruguay 7

Scotland 40 Uruguay 14

New Zealand 19 Argentina 26

The Las Vegas Sevens kicks off on Friday March 2 local, Saturday March 3 AEDT, LIVE on FOX SPORTS. The next Australian game is against the Samoa at 8.26am AEST on Sunday.

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