The Manu Sevens lost four straight games before salvaging some pride with wins against Scotland and Tonga in the playoff for 13th place.
Sir Gordon said their defence was average across the weekend, with disappointing performances against England and Japan in pool play, ruining their chance of back-to-back quarter final appearances.
"Our scrambling defence at times was good but of course scrambling defence is obviously generally centered around missing a one-on-one tackle and then you don't get back into your systems," he said.
