Top Naija News: Nigerian News, Breaking News Nigeria and World News Top Naija News is a daily news publication in Nigeria, delivering the latest breaking news in Nigeria and around the world.
PERTH: The “poor cousins” of Australian sevens have stormed into the Perth semi-finals with a clinical and emphatic 31-7 quarter-final win over the United States on Saturday.
It was sweet revenge for the Aussie men, who had lost to the Americans in golden point extra time in their pool clash on Friday.
Nathan Lawson scored a double at HBF Park while Nick Malouf, Henry Palmer and Ben Dowling also crossed to delight a lively crowd in the final game of the night.
Watch all the action from the 2024 Perth Sevens, with every match across Friday-Sunday. Ad free, live and exclusive on Stan Sport
It sets up a semi-final date in front of a sellout crowd with Fiji at 4.34pm AEDT on Sunday while Australia’s women square off against the US at 3.46pm AEDT.
The home teams are doing their bit in sevens’ fun-filled foray to the west.
But while everyone expected the women to be there at the pointy end, the Aussie men haven’t made the semis of a home tournament since they won in Sydney in 2018.
READ MORE: Brazil star ‘s incredible return from breast cancer
READ MORE: ‘Greedy’ Wallabies great laments latest setback
READ MORE: New Wallabies coach’s heavyweight backing
“We’re the poor cousin sort of thing and we battle away,” coach John Manenti said.
“But the boys are entitled to be really proud of their performance and it’s awesome that Perth’s got behind it. Full house is going to be great.
“And nothing would be better than having two Aussie teams playing in the last couple of games tomorrow night.”
Australia reached the final of the previous tournament in Cape Town before they ran out of steam against Argentina.
The Aussies stunned Olympic champions Fiji 24-7 in the semis in South Africa and Manenti was asked whether he was wary of an angry Fijian team.
“Fiji beat us for a hell of a long time too,” Manenti countered.
“It didn’t matter how angry we got, we didn’t beat them. So we’ve got to play footy. We’ve got to replicate what we did tonight and then some because they’ve got a whole lot of strike power.
“I think there’s a hell of a lot of Fijians in the crowd too – I don’t know that it’s going to be an all Aussie affair with the crowd.
“But that’s what makes it such a special occasion and we respect them enormously. We know how hungry they are for success and we’re going to have to just raise the bar a bit on what we did tonight.”
