The might of New Zealand was too much for both the Australian men and women’s team at the Oceania sevens over the weekend.
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The Aussie men were knocked out by the Kiwis in the semi-final while the women went down in the decider.
Coming through the semi-finals with a 25-7 win over Papua New Guinea, the Pearls went down 12-5 in the final.
The men lost 31-0 to New Zealand in a tough semi-final.
With Australia sending a development squad to represent, the full strength New Zealand outfit proved too strong in the second half.
However they finished with the bronze after Samoa decided not to play in the play-off citing insufficient rest.
There was an unprecedented Riverina involvement across the tournament in Fiji.
Olympic Gold medal winners Alicia Quirk and Sharni Williams while Wagga’s Matt McTaggart was named as captain of the young men’s side for his Australian debut.
Leeton’s Dylan Pietsch was also made the new look men’s squad but had a limited role in the tournament in his return from injury.
He suffered a head knock while scoring off a McTaggart pass and didn’t play on the final day of the tournament which was plagued by torrential rain in Suva and caused delays to the schedule.
Both teams are now getting ready for the Sevens World Series which starts in Dubai on December 1.
