Australia and New Zealand look highly likely to meet again in the women’s final at the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens on Sunday, after both teams made perfect starts to their world championship campaigns.
However, while New Zealand dispatched Brazil 29-12 and Japan 38-7 at Kai Tak Stadium and should be untroubled by Fiji in their final pool match against Fiji on Saturday, the Australians have a tougher assignment ahead against Canada.
Australia sit second in Pool B behind Canada despite thrashing South Africa and Great Britain 33-0 and 34-7 respectively, while the Canadians beat those two teams 31-0 and 41-7.
Five Australian players combined for 11 tries across their two matches on Friday, and Maddison Levi believed the results were “a confidence booster” for her team ahead of their final face-off on Saturday against the Canadians, who upset them in the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics two years ago.
Barring a Fijian upset against New Zealand, Australia must beat Canada to avoid the Kiwis in the semi-finals.
“Canada always comes out and is always tough,” said the 23-year-old, who scored two tries against Great Britain. “I think we kind of let ourselves down in that Olympic [semi-final] match, so we reflected on it. We know we’ve got so much more to give and so much more to get better at, and we just keep building as a team.”