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‘Weapons’ unleashed: Australia skipper reveals key to team’s success
By Finn Morton
Australia men’s captain Nick Malouf knew the job wasn’t done after beating Argentina in pool play on Thursday. With a shot at history coming up against the USA, the skipper spoke about the importance of unleashing the team’s “weapons” moving forward.
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Henry Hutchison, Dietrich Roache and Nathan Lawson has all stood tall during Australia’s perfect run during the pool stages, and Malouf’s insight into knockout rugby proved to be the case against the Americans.
With Australia looking to qualify for a men’s rugby sevens quarter-final at an Olympic Games for the first time, James Turner and Corey Toole got on the scoresheet during the first half. Turner has been a mainstay of this team for a while, and Toole is a Wallaby-in-waiting.
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Toole, who crossed for eight tries for the ACT Brumbies in Super Rugby Pacific this year, was denied a second later on but Australia completed their one-sided win over the USA with one more score to playmaker Maurice Longbottom.
While Nick Malouf spoke about how “exciting” the Australians can be after their first of two matches at the Paris Games on day two, these comments provide an insight into the team’s world-beater form.
“We’ve just been wanting to fire our shots all tournament,” Nick Malouf said on the Olympics broadcast after the win over Argentina, as seen on Stan Sport in Australia.
“In Games gone by I think we’ve probably just been passengers for the whole experience.
“We’ve got a lot of strike in our team and we can be a pretty exciting team when those weapons get unleashed so it’s just about doing that.”
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Australia started their quest for what would be their first men’s Olympic rugby sevens medal with a 21-14 victory against Samoa. Dietrich Roache threw an unfortunate intercept early on but three-time Olympian Henry Hutchison scored a double to help Aussie win.
The men in gold also got the job done 21-7 over newly promoted SVNS Series side Kenya, and then put on an attacking clinic against Marcos Moneta’s Argentina. Argentina won the League title this year on the Series, so they’re by no means an easy team to beat.
So, for those keeping score, Australia’s win over the USA is their fourth ‘W’ in a row at the Games. They can’t afford to lose any more if they want to challenge for a gold medal against either France or South Africa.
“It’s nice to build momentum. A lot of these tournaments are about momentum,” Malouf explained.
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“Fiji haven’t dropped a game here and they’re double gold medallists so that’s probably the blueprint and all the proof you need that you want to be winning all your games to be at the top come the final day.”
Australia will take on Fiji in a blockbuster semi-final. The Fijians are the two-time defending Olympic gold medallists, as Malouf said, and they’re also unbeaten from four matches so far at the Paris Games.
On their run to the semi-finals, the Fijians dominated Uruguay and the USA before also registering a win over France. They then came up against Ireland in the quarter-finals but managed to sneak by with a hard-fought 19-15 win.
