Sydney 7s

The legendary coach was seen speaking with fans on Day Three of the World Series leg in Sydney, as he walked along the sideline of the hallowed turf of Allianz Stadium.

Rugby Australia made the bold decision earlier this month axe coach Dave Rennie eight months out from this year’s World Cup in France, and replace him with Eddie Jones.

Jones, who coached the Wallabies to a World Cup Final in 2003, is coming off an unsuccessful campaign with England – having been sacked by the RFU following the Autumn Nations Series.

The national side’s offload game was on show as they put on a better performance compared to the semi-final clash against South Africa.

France struck first through a Thomas Carol try to lead 5-0 after three minutes of play.

A minute later Jerry Tuwai drew a couple of defenders before releasing for Iowane Teba as Fiji answered back with an uncovered try to level the scores at 5-all.

This was after the team defeated Ireland 24-12.

Samoa defeated Australia 24-10 in the category’s semifinal.

The team now moves up to third place in the overall World Sevens series table with 68 points, trailing behind South Africa in second with 76 points and New Zealand extending their lead with 85 points.

Meanwhile, NZ won the Sydney 7s tournament after beating South Africa 38-0.

Fiji won bronze medal after beating France 29-5.

The side went down to New Zealand 12-0 in the first quarterfinals.

NZ proved to be too strong for the pacific lads and scored two tries from Roderick Solo and Ngarohi McGarvey-Black.

Samoa will now go on to play against Australia in the first 5th place semifinal before Ireland takes on Great Britain.

Meanwhile in the other cup quarters, South Africa defeated Ireland 26-12, Fiji defeated Great Britain 14-17 France.

South Africa will face Fiji in the first cup semifinals before New Zealand takes on France.

The side will be playing against current HSBC World Sevens series leaders, New Zealand in the first quarterfinal.

Samoa remained undefeated in their pool stage after beating Spain 35-15 in their last pool game.

New Zealand lost their last pool game after they were beaten 17-14, going down to a late South Africa penalty shot at goal after both sides had scored two tries.

The quarterfinal match between Samoa and New Zealand will kick start at 9.37pm.

The Brian Lima coached side won their opening match 17-12 against Ireland.

Samoa’s Paul Scanlan scored the first try of the match before Ireland played a good comeback scoring two consecutive tries from Jordan Conroy.

But that was not enough to maintain their lead after Samoa came firing back with tries from Leueli Leitufia and Motu Opetai.

Samoa also won their second match 26-7 against USA, today.

Samoa will face Spain in their next match at the tournament.

Having won the gold in Rio and Japan, head coach Ben Golling has a tough act to follow and a disappointing finish in Hamilton last weekend where they lost in the quarter-final to Argentina, has dropped the Islands nation down to eighth place in the HSBC World Rugby 7s Series table. Only the top four teams from the 2023 HSBC competition will gain automatic qualification for the Paris Games.

The team is in the same pool with USA, Ireland and Spain.

The Brian Lima coached side is 8 points behind New Zealand, who is now ranked top of the table with 63 points.

USA is in second place with 61 points, Argentina in third with 59 points ahead of South Africa with 57 points.

With four legs down and seven to go this season, the Top 9 teams are all still in the running to take out the HSBC 2022-2023 Sevens World Series.

The Sydney 7s begins tomorrow and ends on Sunday.

Lima has retained the same team that travelled to South Africa with the exception of skipper Melani Matavao returning from injury, forcing Pelosi “Jimmy” Taupo to miss out.

The change was confirmed in the naming of the 14-member side today.

The forward trio of Uaina Sione, and Co-Captains Vaovasa Afa-Su’a and Vaafauese Apelu-Maliko all return.

They are joined by 21-year-old power forwards Motu Opetai and Taunuu Niulevaea who have both started 8 and 5 matches respectively this season.

World Rugby made the announcement due to the continued global uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.

In March, World Rugby postponed all remaining tournaments in the 2020 series, while last month the opening rounds of the new series set down for Dubai and Cape Town later this year where cancelled.

New Zealand Rugby General Manager Professional Rugby & Performance Chris Lendrum said it was disappointing for the teams, fans, and event partners, but a sensible decision under current circumstances.