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SPORT
Success at sevens
SYDNEY: Australian rugby
-union coach Bob Dwyer has
rated his young team's effort
in last weekend's Punte del
csie sevens lournameni in
Uruguay as a tremendous suc
cess.
Dwyer said Australia had un
earthed a number of players with
the ability to play sevens football at
the highest level.
An Australia side devoid of Test
representatives went down 19-26
to a far more experienced New Zea
land side in the final of the two-day
24-team tournament.
Dwyer's team topped its pool
with victories over host club Brit
ish Schools Old Boys of Montevi
deo and Argentine province Santa
Fe, and overcame Uruguay in the
quarter-final and Argentina in the
semi-final.
Australia trailed 21-7 at half
time in the final but stormed back
to within two points before the de
cisive try was scored by Eric Rush,
rated the player of the tournament
by Dwyer.
"Wc could have won the tourna
ment with even average luck, a
couple of bounces of the ball,"
Dwyer said on his return to Sydney
yesterday.
"I think it was tremendously
succcssful for us. I thought that
with the players we had available
that if we played to our ability we
could make the final and winning
that depended on how quickly we
improved.
"We played some excellent sev
ens in the semi-final and final and
we showed that we have some sev
ens players who could reach the
highest level of sevens play and we
didn't know we had them before."
One rookie who made a major
impression on Dwyer and the
crowds of around 6000 which at
tended both days was Queensland
winger Barry Lea.
"I'm sure we did not know
about Barry Lea, he was a hil. He
has got speed and ability and ball
skills," Dwyer said.
He said it was too soon to assess
Australia's chances of success in
the inaugural world sevens cham
pionship in Edinburgh in April.
Dwyer said a lot of questions
still had to be answered, including
whether Australia would use its
leading 15-a-sidc exponents in the
sevens.
Dwyer and his co-selectors will
run the rule over candidates for the
team at various tournaments in
February before picking teams for
tournaments in Hong Kong and
Fiji.
ACT Under-16 batsman David Kennard swings and misses against lllawarra in their final St George Bank Cup game at Kingston Oval yesterday. The ACT kept lllawarra to 9-228 in 60 overs despite several missed catches. The ACT lost the game after compiling 9-206, with Kevin Green scoring 69 and Dinish Bhandari 37. Help
ACT Under-16 batsman David Kennard swings and misses against lllawarra in their final St George Bank Cup game at Kingston Oval
yesterday. The ACT kept lllawarra to 9-228 in 60 overs despite several missed catches. The ACT lost the game after compiling 9-206,
with Kevin Green scoring 69 and Dinish Bhandari 37.
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