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How Olympic heartbreak is spurring Australia on before SVNS Series

Players of Australia show their dejection at the end of the Men’s Rugby Sevens XXX match between XX and XX on day one of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on July 27, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Nathan Lawson was in tears after Australia’s crushing 31-7 loss in their semi-final at the Paris Olympic Games. Australia had shown immense potential throughout the tournament, but their dreams of taking home gold or silver were dashed by a dangerously good Fijian side.

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Australia had one more chance to secure their spot on the podium against Olympic surprise packet South Africa. It was a tense contest, but a red card to Aussie skipper Nick Malouf proved decisive as they ended up falling 26-19 in a heartbreaking bronze medal match.

Team South Africa, who had only won two of four matches leading into the third-place playoff, made history as captain Selvyn Davids raced away for a late winner. The Aussies’ performances up until that point were deserving of a medal but sport is, unfortunately, not always fair.

More than three months have passed since those two agonising losses. It may have been the best result ever for the Australia Men’s Sevens side at an Olympic Games, but it took some time for that sense of accomplishment to sink in.

On Wednesday evening at the Rugby Australia Awards, Nathan Lawson took home the Shaun Mackay Medal as the Australia Men’s Seven’s Player of the Year. In a brief interview, the 25-year-old opened up on what the last few months have been like.

“Straight after the Olympics it was obviously very disappointing,” Nathan Lawson told reporters. “It settled in pretty much a couple weeks after, and just realising how well we did.

“To get there and not finish it off (with a medal) was disappointing but in the end, the effort that went into the whole year and into the Olympics was huge.

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“To get to the fourth place was huge. Very proud.”

Last season, Australia made the Cup Final at both SVNS Cape Town and SVNS Perth. But consistency proved to be their toughest rival throughout a tough campaign, with the likes of Great Britain and New Zealand handing them heartbreaking defeats in key matches.

But with that in the past, the Aussies are preparing to usher in a new era during the upcoming HSBC SVNS Series season.

Following the departure of former coach John Manenti, the squad will turn to established players like Lawson to drive their campaign. Henry Paterson and Henry Hutchison are another two players to watch, as are the other Shawn Mackay Medal nominees Dietrich Roache and Ben Dowling.

Australia started the season poorly in Dubai last December, and they’ll be intent on making sure they don’t kick off the new campaign in the same manner this time around. Following the Olympics, this is Australia’s first chance to push for some silverware.

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“You got that itch,” Dowling said.

“We had an off-season, had holidays, and I could tell the boys were itching to get straight back into it.

“It’s been an exciting pre-season and really looking forward to Dubai and Cape Town.”

The SVNS Series gets underway from November 30 to December 1 at Dubai’s The Sevens Stadium. Cape Town’s DHL Stadium will host the next leg from December 7 to 8. The only other events that have been announced at this stage are in Perth, Vancouver and Hong Kong China.

HSBC SVNS Perth takes place on 24-26 January at HBF Park. Plan your ultimate rugby weekend in Western Australia with the help of flexible travel packages including tickets and accommodation. Buy Now or Find Out More.  

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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