No time for men to savour Sydney

Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 1:18 AM
Beth Newman
by Beth Newman
The Aussie Men's Sevens aren't resting on their laurels, fresh off breaking their title drought in Sydney on Sunday. The side departed for Hamilton this morning full of confidence but know they need to back up their performance in New Zealand.

They had to wait six years to taste Cup glory, but the Aussie Sevens won’t have any time to savour it, heading to Hamilton on Tuesday morning.

For the first time since 2012, they will head to a tournament with a firm target on their backs, after stunning South Africa in the Sydney final.

Forward Sam Myers said the back-to-back competitions meant they had little time to soak up the win, looking straight to the New Zealand leg.


“It’s a quick turnaround, especially when Sydney's the first week and you win it but we're really looking forward to the next challenge,” he said.

“That was a great performance on the weekend and the thing about good teams is they've got to be consistent so we're all keen and eager to get stuck in to Hamilton.”

Things won’t be easy for Australia in the fourth World Series leg, drawn to play Fiji in the pool stages, after the Pacific Islanders finished sixth in Sydney.

Myers said they knew that everyone would be coming for them in Hamilton.

“Our performance on the weekend was second to none,” he said.


“Keeping South Africa to 0, not many teams can do that, so we do have a bit of a target on the head and a few boys coming in, (but) they've been training well.”

The win has given them a critical shot of belief and Myers said they had to back their Sydney performance up this weekend.

“We just need to believe and trust in our game plans,” he said.

“You can see from our results that when we do that, we're unstoppable. We go into these games with a game plan, just executing those.”

Coach Andy Friend is yet to announce his final 12 for the Kiwi tournament, but there is set to be at least one change, with Boyd Killingworth (hamstring) set to miss the leg.

An extended squad flew to New Zealand on Tuesday morning, ahead of Saturday’s first day of play.

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