World SVNS Series: Australia start day one in Perth with mixed results for men’s and women’s sides

Australia’s women’s sevens side have thrown down the gauntlet, launching their Perth World SVNS Series campaign with a 31-5 demolition job of China.

But there heartbreak for the men’s team, as they went down swinging 31-26 in extra-time against reigning Perth men’s champions Argentina.

The second year of the Perth sevens event kicked off Friday at HBF Park, and a diverse crowd made themselves heard despite the heat, with the Kenyan and Fijian fans in particular creating a vibrant atmosphere.

The Australian women, fresh off a win in last season’s grand final in Madrid, were the talk of the town ahead of the tournament – but they showed they could walk the walk too, as Charlotte Caslick starred with a pair of tries.

She scored the first two five-pointers of the match against China, before forcing a turnover to prevent a try, and moments later, Maddison Levi raced through a gap in the defence and streaked all the way up the field to score.

Demi Hayes and Teagan Levi got in on the act, before Dou Xinrong grabbed a consolation try for China.

Caslick downplayed her involvement in the win and said she emerely finished off her teammates’ good work.

“We started really well, we got some of our younger girls who haven’t played a lot of the World Series exposed to what the series is about, and a lot of minutes,” she said.

“Going forward, that’ll put them in good stead.

“The way that we play, it always opens up for people, all of us can kind of finish the job and I just had the ball in a bit of space.”

On the flip side, the Australian men found themselves in a hole early against Argentina, giving up the first try to Matteo Graziano.

Despite James Turner finishing off a great run by Maurice Longbottom to reduce the deficit to 7-5, Argentina scored two more converted tries before the break.

The polished Argentinians looked bound to cruise home as they led 26-5, until three Australian tries in four minutes swung the game.

Sidney Harvey and Matthew Gonzalez hit back for the hosts to set up a grandstand finish and Turner added his second before Hayden Sargeant sent the game into extra-time with a nerveless conversion.

But Argentina had the final say, scoring first after the restart through Tobias Wade to seal victory.

“We didn’t start the way we wanted to, but it was good fight in the heat,” Turner said.

“We lost that; they didn’t really win it. A couple of mistakes in our hands, obviously, it sucks, but I think we’ll bounce back.”

“We could have just rolled over, and 35-12, it could have got to that, but the fightback was pretty important. And if we just start strong we can finish strong.”

The biggest upset of day one so far came courtesy of the Uruguyans, who entered the Perth tournament languishing in 10th spot in the series.

But after giving up the first three tries of the game and trailing series-leaders Fiji 17-0, they produced a sensational comeback and ripped off four unanswered tries to seal a memorable 24-17 win.

And not content with being a flash in the pan, Uruguay then backed up their efforts against New Zealand, holding off the Kiwis 17-12.