Australia are Oceania 7s champions once again after seeing off a spirited Fiji team 26-0. Fiji will join them at the Paris Olympics, and Papua New Guinea will compete in the Olympic repechage
Eight national teams travelled to Brisbane competing for an Olympic spot. For Australia and the New Zealand Development squad the first two days were really exhibition games before they competed to playoff against the Olympic qualifier for the regional title.
As the only World Series team competing for the Olympic spot, Fiji unsurprisingly sailed through Pool B against American Samoa (in only their second tournament), Cook Islands and Tonga, the latter also qualifying for the next stage.
In Pool C Papua – perhaps surprisingly – topped the pool after a comfortable 36-7 win against Samoa at the end of Day 1. Manusina nonetheless reached the Olympic semi-finals.
Day two began with Fiji continuing to play on another level, sweeping past Samoa 42-0, while Papua’s great form saw them into the Olympic qualifier final edging Tonga 12-10. However, they proved no competition for Fiji in a qualifier final that Fiji won 54-0
Up against New Zealand’s development team Australia won four a drew once in the five game that saw them comfortably into the Championship final, where they would play Fiji.
In the final, despite the form Fiji had shown, Australia dominated the Tokyo bronze medallists with a four-try masterclass.
Maddi Levi was Australia’s chief destroyer with a brace while try-scorers Maddi Ashby and Bienne Terita impressed alongside Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea and Teagan Levi.
Ashby drew first blood against Fijiana after just two minutes with a blistering run from a scrum move before Lefau-Fakaosilea and T Levi combined to send Australia downfield and M Levi over for a 14-0 halftime lead.
The Levis combined again shortly after oranges with Teagan sending a 20m cutout to sister Maddi, who duly sprinted the length for Australia’s third try – and her eighth for the tournament.
Bienne Terita added a final flourish in the dying seconds, outpacing the Fijiana defence from set-piece to push the margin out to 26-0.
Pool A: Australia 21-19 New Zealand Development; Australia 21-21 New Zealand Development;
Australia 26-12 New Zealand Development; Australia 40-12 New Zealand Development;
Pool B: Tonga 32-0 American Samoa; Fiji 50-0 Cook Islands; Cook Islands 21-28 American Samoa; Fiji 40-5 Tonga; Tonga 10-0 Cook Islands; Fiji 68-0 American Samoa
Pool C: Samoa 50-0 Nauru; Papua New Guinea 41-0 Solomon Islands; Solomon Islands 41-0 Nauru; Papua New Guinea 36-7 Samoa; Samoa 34-0 Solomon Islands; Papua New Guinea 50-0 Nauru
7th-10th Place Semi-finals: American Samoa 27-7 Nauru; Solomon Islands 14-19 Cook Islands
Olympic semi-Finals: Fiji 42-0 Samoa; Papua New Guinea 12-10 Tonga
Olympic qualifier: Fiji 54-0 Papua New Guinea
Championship semi-Final: Australia 14-10 New Zealand Development
9th Place: Nauru 0-31 Solomon Islands
7th Place: American Samoa 7-19 Cook Islands
5th Place: Samoa 22-5 Tonga
3rd Place: New Zealand Development 20-0 Papua New Guinea
Championship Final Australia 20-0 Fiji