Aussie cup dreams go bust at Las Vegas Sevens

Sun, Feb 15, 2015, 1:00 AM
AAP
by AAP

The Cup hopes of the Qantas Australian Men's team at the Las Vegas Sevens have ended after falling to defeat to an impressive New Zealand side (28-7) this afternoon.

In the Cup Quarter-Finals clash, Beaudine Waaka opened the scoring for New Zealand after two minutes before Joe Webber doubled his sides advantage to give the All Blacks a 14-0 lead over the Aussies at the break. A second half double from the dynamic Webber completed his hat-trick with Australia's only reply coming through Greg Jeloudev late on.

The result means that Australia will play Canada in the Plate Semi-Final tomorrow morning (AEDT) at the Sam Boyd Stadium. In the other Plate Semi-Final, France will take on England.

Australian Sevens Head Coach Geraint John said: "We started off well against Scotland and continued where we left off yesterday demonstrating a good skill level. But that doesn't count for anything when the Cup Quarter-Finals come around and we simply didn't perform against New Zealand.

"It's something we have to look at as we're not performing against the very top teams at the moment. But its not something we can look into the reasons why at the moment as we have a big game against Canada tomorrow.

"Canada has beaten England and Argentina already in this tournament and will be after points. We have to turn up and improve on what let us down today - our skills-execution and defensive-execution. After this tournament, there are only four tournaments left and we need to fight for every point we can - England are right behind us and the USA are looking exceptionally good at the moment too. Tomorrow is a big day for us."

Earlier in the day, Australia ran in six tries to defeat Scotland (40-14) to confirm top spot in Pool D. Lewis Holland benefited from good inter-play between Cameron Clark and Greg Jeloudev to cross over before Jesse Parahi powered over a minute later. Con Foley and Allan Fa'alava'au gave the Aussies a 26-point lead at the break. Jeloudev extended the lead but Scotland hit back with two consolation efforts of their own through James Fleming and a penalty try. Outstanding work from skipper Ed Jenkins and a neat offload from Tom Cusack to the onrushing Nick Malouf put the icing on the cake for Australia.

Elsewhere at the Las Vegas Sevens, the Cup Semi-Finals have been decided with South Africa set to meet Fiji with hosts USA playing New Zealand.

Fans can catch all of the action from Finals Day at the Las Vegas Sevens LIVE on FOX SPORTS 2 from from 5am (AEDT) on Monday.

Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens results in Las Vegas, USA, 14-15 February:

Australia 45-0 Brazil, Pool D

Australia 31-14 France, Pool D

Australia 40-14 Scotland, Pool D

Australia 7-28 New Zealand, Cup Quarter-Final

Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens fixture in Las Vegas, USA, 16 February:

Australia v Canada, Plate Semi-Final, 7.10am AEDT

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