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Australian women's side off to a flying start at Dubai Sevens
By AAP
Australia’s rugby women have maintained their brilliant form to again look like the team to beat in the latest world series Dubai Sevens tournament.
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Following their dominant victory in last weekend’s final, Demi Hayes’ team carried on from where they left off, winning all three of their pool matches on Friday while racking up a remarkable 127 points, including 19 tries.
They began with a 40-0, six-try hammering of Spain, which featured doubles from Charlotte Caslick and Faith Nathan, before eight different players crossed the try line in their 52-0 pummelling of Canada.
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Next up for the ruthless treatment were Brazil, beaten 35-7 as Caslick, who starred in last week’s final win over Fiji, scored two more tries to bring her total for the day to five.
“We’ve really been focusing on our defence and our one-on-one tackling,” said one of their try scorers, Lily Dick.
“We know our attack is brilliant, and hopefully, we can match that with our defence.”
The Australian men, who were knocked out by eventual winners South Africa last week, also enjoyed an unbeaten day, winning their three matches, but none easily, to make it into Saturday’s quarter-final against Ireland.
They defeated Kenya 21-14 and Canada 24-17 before a tight 22-19 win over the US, which featured two early tries from Solomone Vosaicake and Yool Yool to set them on their way and further scores from Corey Toole and Josh Turner.
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Like Australia’s women, the South Africa men’s team looked well set to win for a second successive week after the COVID pandemic forced the cancellation of their planned world series event back home and saw Dubai double up as hosts.
The ‘Blitzboks’, who beat Britain, Ireland, and Japan while scoring 90 points on Friday, will now go for a record-extending 22nd straight match victory across the last four tournaments when they meet France in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
