A pair of wins over Sevens powerhouses South Africa and Fiji has men's coach John Manenti confident of a strong 2024 heading into Perth.
The Australians started the SVNS Series slow, with Manenti conceding they were 'chasing' the entire tournament, needing a bonus point defeat to qualify for the quarters before going down to the Blitzboks.
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"We had quite a few guys that were coming back from not playing or injuries so there was a bit of rust getting up to speed and then we probably lost a bit of confidence,” Manenti said on Dubai to Rugby.com.au
“We were up against Ireland and probably should’ve won and then made a few mistakes before bouncing into a hard game that meant we had to win our third to have any hope of going through.
“We were always chasing.”
This looked to continue into Cape Town after a 35-5 defeat to New Zealand before the team turned it around, beginning with a 26-7 win over Canada, who had defeated the Kiwis and Samoa earlier in the day.
This booked another match-up with hosts South Africa. On top of last week's defeat, the South Africans had beaten them five straight times in a pre-season camp in Stellenbosch.
What followed was two of their best performances of the year, shutting out the hosts 28-0 before defeating Fiji 24-7, their first win over the 2016 Olympic champions since their Hong Kong triumphs.
“That was a real step forward because we’ve had a few hiccups with that (opening game of the day) over the last year or so," Manenti said.
“They had a bit of momentum going their way and we were playing them at home in front of probably 20 thousand so we had to silence the crowd.
“There were plenty of reasons why we couldn’t have won but we aimed up defensively. I thought tactically got a few things right which was good and then the boys executed on the field."
The Australian side was spent by the time the Final rolled around as they were dominated by Argentina.
However, Manenti is confident the weekend is proof the side can match it with the best in their continual build towards the Paris Olympics.
“We had probably two of our best performances I can remember in beating South Africa and Fiji," he added. “I think in the Final we had probably extended ourselves a little in the sense that we had played the starter big minutes so we had a fairly young group around the main starters so probably eight or nine players played the bulk of the tournament
“…We learnt a lot from it and the boys are pretty keen to go one better in Perth. It’s certainly nice to be playing for medals and it’s such a bloody tough tournament, every game matters because there’s bonus points and for/against. It’s ruthless, it’s not even an off game, you have an off two or three minutes and you’re in trouble.
“That’s the way it’s going to be all year for the Olympics and every tournament so at least we know by the time we get to Paris, we’re going to be well versed in how hard it is. We’ve had a really strong training block so far, hopefully that continues and we can keep delivering top-four performances and being in the medal mix.”
