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Aussies cause boil-over in the heat of Dubai
December 02, 2006 - 8:19am
Story by: ARU
A new-look and inexperienced Australian Sevens team have caused one of the biggest upsets in the history of the IRB World Sevens Series when they defeated world champions Fiji, 19-14 on the opening day of the Dubai Sevens tournament.
After falling to Portugal, 12-10 in a closely fought match the Aussies came out firing against the Kenyans in the second Pool A match and claimed their first win of the tournament, 24-7.
After watching Portugal then win their second game against Kenya, the Australian team knew they had to win and produced the shock of the day to defeat last year's world champions Fiji, to qualify for the quarter-finals and stun a sizeable crowd at Exiles Rugby Ground.
Coach Glen Ella said that it was an incredible effort from the team to adapt so quickly to the pace and intensity of Sevens rugby.
“After our opening game I knew we had to improve a lot to match Kenya and Fiji and the boy's really responded well,” Ella said.
“We just did the simple things really well, we knew we couldn't run around them, so it was a case of playing smart and keeping mistakes to a minimum”.
“We've had a good day, but tomorrow we face an undefeated England side who will be a massive challenge for us.”
Australia will now face England in the Cup Quarter Finals to be played at 12:14pm (7.14pm AEST) on Saturday.
Portugal12 defeated Australia10
Australia24 defeated Kenya7
Australia19 defeated Fiji14
Day 2DubaiSevens - Saturday 2 December
Cup Quarter Finals
- Quarter Final 1 - Fiji v France 11.08am (6.08pm AEST)
- Quarter Final 2 - New Zealand v Canada 11. 30am (6.30pm AEST)
- Quarter Final 3 - South Africa v Samoa 11.52am (6.52pm AEST)
- Quarter Final 4 - England v Australia 12.14pm (7.14pm AEST)