The Fiji women's Sevens team has sealed their berth at next year's Tokyo Olympics after outclassing Papua New Guinea 36-0 in the Oceania qualifying final, while Australia clinched their place in the men's draw after coming from two tries down to defeat Samoa 19-12 in the deciding match.
The Fijiana racked up 189 unanswered points in the pool stage with blowout wins over Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Nauru before overwhelming Samoa 43-0 in the semi finals to set up a qualification decider against the PNG Palais, who had topped the other group with wins against Tonga, Cook Islands and the Manusina.
The Fiji women's sevens team celebrate qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Photo: Oceania Rugby
Captain Rusila Nagasau said that they treated every game like a final as they wanted to ensure they gave their best performance for the Olympic qualifiers.
"For us right now everybody is happy. We came here with one aim and that is to qualify for the Olympics and we achieved that and now we are looking forward to the next tournament which is Dubai and Cape Town (on the World Sevens Series)," she said.
The Fijiana had to settle for second place in the Oceania Women's Sevens Championships after falling 24-12 to defending Olympic champions Australia, with New Zealand defeating PNG 29-0 in the Oceania third-place playoff.
In the men's Olympic Qualifying Final, Australia scored three second half tries to defeat Samoa 19-12 before upsetting hosts Fiji 22-7 in the Oceania Sevens Championship decider.
The Australian men's sevens team celebrate qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Photo: Oceania Rugby
Tries from Tofatu Solia and Elisepeta Alofipo gave Samoa a 12 point buffer at half-time, despite Losi Filipo being sent to the sin bin for a dangerous high tackle from the opening kick-off.
But the Aussie 7s scored first in the second spell, through Henry Hutchison, to cut the deficit to five points before Filipo was given his marching orders after being shown a second yellow card for a neck roll, leaving the Manu with only six players for the final four minutes of the match.
Lachie Anderson scored Australia's second try from the resulting penalty to level the scores at 12-all. Lewis Holland missed the conversion but scored what proved to be the match-winning try moments later after charging down a clearance kick from a Samoan scrum.
After booking their trip to Tokyo, the Aussie 7s capped a perfect weekend by beating hosts and defending champions Fiji in the Oceania Sevens Championship decider.
"The last three months have been about that game there (against Samoa) and we knew we were going to have a tough and physical game against Samoa," said a delighted captain Lewis Holland.
Australia also completed a clean sweep of the Oceania Sevens Championship titles. Photo: Oceania Rugby
"The tournament has been awesome as Oceania is always a tough region as we look at the teams that are in it like Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and everyone else. It's always tough and physical."
Despite missing out on automatic qualification, the Samoa and Tonga men will get one final chance to book their tickets to Tokyo in the global repechage tournament in June, while Papua New Guinea and Samoa are through to the women's repechage.
