Argentina trounce Australian sevens team

May 14, 2017 - 7:01 PM Australia's disappointing rugby sevens tournament in Paris has come to an end with the team taking tenth place.

Having struggled on the opening day and been placed in the Challenge pool the Aussies started well with wins over Japan and Wales before losing the final against Argentina.

They beat Japan 28-19 with tries to Simon Kennewell and Tim Anstee giving them a 14-5 lead at the break.

Japan hit back in the second half but tries to Liam McNamara and Lachie Anderson were enough to get Australia the win.

A 14-12 win over Wales followed with Australia hanging on doggedly for the win thanks to a try in either half from Dylan Pietsch and Stefan Andrews.

They couldn't keep it going in the final though and were trounced 33-12 by Argentina.

Three tries to Argentina saw them lead 21-7 at the break, with McNamara again scoring late in the half but the game was gone by then and Argentina scored twice more in the second half, while Alex Gibbon got a consolation try for the Aussies.

The overall performance for the tournament left coach Andy Friend searching for answers as to how to improve.

"We battled through two wins against Japan and Wales and then in the third game we were totally outplayed by Argentina. We weren't cohesive and we paid the penalty there," Friend said.

"Injuries had an impact but we can't blame that. At the end of the day we need to look at how we prepared and came into the tournament. We'll work on our ability as a team to communicate both in attack and defence. The talk wasn't out there, and that's just an attitude thing."

The Paris tournament and indeed the title of world champions was taken out by South Africa's Blitzboks, who beat Scotland 15-5 in a tight final.

The Blitzboks had earlier wrapped up the series after England's semi-final loss to Scotland meant that they could not overtake the South Africans on the series standings. Fiji, second in the standings before the tournament, exited at the quarter-final stage.

The London sevens is next on the calendar and will take place on May 20 and 21.

Source: AAP