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Leaders Australia face major soul searching ahead of the women’s Sevens World Series finale after being on the end of a record 46-0 thrashing from arch-rivals New Zealand in Canada.
Both teams went into the final on Vancouver Island unbeaten but the Kiwis ran riot, scoring eight tries and scarcely allowing Australia any possession due to their aggressive defence.
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New Zealand’s win closed the series points gap to Australia to just four points – 74 to 70 – after four of the five rounds. And New Zealand will go to the final round in Paris in mid-June with all the momentum, having won the last two tournaments and also beaten Australia to claim the Commonwealth Games gold medal.
Olympic champions Australia won the opening two rounds in Dubai and Sydney but have struggled to rediscover their mojo following the exit of coach Tim Walsh after the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Interim coach John Manenti had star playmaker Charlotte Caslick back from injury in Canada, but she was not allowed to wield much influence against a Kiwi side spearheaded by veteran Portia Woodman that over-powered and overran her team.
Manenti preferred to look at the positive side of getting more game time into young players and the team’s improvement from the last round in Japan as they beat Fiji 21-5 in a rugged quarter-final and France 17-12 in the semis.
“There was plenty of good stuff over the weekend and I thought there was some big improvements in many areas but we just got blown away in the end,” Manenti said.
“We just have to dust ourselves off. Our attack was far more clinical, our passing was better, our tackling was better other than falling off a fair few in the end there though.
“Some good exposure and minutes for our younger girls too. Page [McGregor] played half the game in the semi-final so there’s a heap of good stuff we’ll take out of that and a fair bit of hurt that will inspire us towards Paris as well.”