Australia were taught a valuable lesson in consistency by their rivals at the opening round of the international rugby sevens series on the Gold Coast.
After blitzing through the round-robin stage on Saturday with three wins from three pool matches, including a gutsy 15-14 win over defending champions Fiji, Australia were eliminated for title contention when beaten by Kenya in the quarter-finals on Sunday.
Fiji and New Zealand, the two traditional powerhouses of rugby sevens, showed Saturday form counts for little in the two-day tournament, reaching the final despite being unconvincing for large parts of the group stages.
A 17-14 loss in the lesser plate competition to Argentina later on Sunday meant Australia departed their home tournament disappointingly, lamenting what might have been.
"It's definitely a missed opportunity," said Australian player Shannon Walker.
"I don't know what it was, just didn't seem to get up for the (Kenya) game I suppose."
"Consistency's sort of the name of the game and there's little things we need to brush up on. We'll be better for it."
Another disappointment from the tournament was the knee injury suffered by Wallabies squad member Luke Morahan.
The Queensland Reds back went down just 43 seconds into Australia's opening match with medial ligament damage but he was staying optimistic of his chances of selection for the Wallabies' tour to Europe in November.
"Depending on how my rehab goes, you never know, some people get back in four weeks and it doesn't look to be too serious," Morahan said.
Morahan said he was also not ruling out more sevens appearances if it doesn't clash with his aspirations at the game's highest level.
"If the time is right, like it has been this time, I'll put my hand up," he said.
"Ultimately I want to be a fulltime starter for the Wallabies, that's still my main focus right now and if sevens helps me do that I'll keep on playing but if not, and if I'm lucky enough to be a Wallabies starter, I'll obviously stick with that."
NZN
