John Porch and his Aussie men’s sevens side will be looking to improve on their fifth placing when the Sevens World Series moves onto Cape Town.
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After falling to a fast finishing English side (19-26) in their Cup quarter final in the Series opener in Dubai, the Aussies bounced back to defeat Kenya (19-12) and then Samoa (22-17) to secure a fifth finish.
“The positive side is that we finished with two wins but the disappointing side that we came here wanting to be in the semi finals, we didn’t achieve that,” Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens head coach Andy Friend said.
“We got to this point last year and then went to Cape Town and went very poor, we have got to take this Fifth spot and go into Cape Town and target a Semi Final there.
“I thought Lachie (Anderson) and Simon (Kennewell) were two of our better players today and it was good for Lewis Holland to get some minutes under his belt. That was a pleasing part of the tournament.
“We are seconds away from being in Finals but we have to learn how to play those Championship minutes and take those opportunities when they are there. That’s where we have to be better and that’s our target next weekend.”
Captain Lewis Holland added that they didn’t start the way they wanted to.
“We needed to build throughout the day, but we will learn from that and we have a lot of young guys who will take a lot form it,” he said.
“Hopefully next week we can come out firing like we did on day one.
“We went away from our game and went a bit one off. We didn’t back our systems and structures that we have been practicing all pre-season. We will go away and fix that and be ready for next week.”
The second round of the Series will take place this weekend.