Australia finished sixth overall in the 2016-17 World Rugby Sevens Series after the final leg of the tournament was played in London over the weekend.
Sydney University Football Club’s Tom Jenkins was part of the squad that finished sixth in the London tournament, while clubmates Ed Jenkins and Nick Malouf played in a number of the earlier legs.
Jenkins became the most capped Australian Sevens player when he brought up his 50th appearance in the Hong Kong leg of the series.
The globe-trotting 2016-17 tournament started off December 2, 2016 in Dubai, where Australia finished 5th, with subsequent legs in Cape Town (11th), Wellington (10th), Sydney (4th), Las Vegas (6th), Vancouver (8th), Hong Kong (3rd), Singapore (4th), Paris (10th) and London (6th).
Australian handed New Zealand a 40-7 drubbing to claim sixth place in London, a win that pleased head coach Andy Friend.
“I thought the boys did really well to bounce back and put 40 points on New Zealand, who have been a really tough team for us to beat,” he said.
“And then we had the chance to beat the current world champions (South Africa) at the end and for all bar the last 30 seconds, I thought we were going to win that.
“A disappointing day with positive signs but we finished sixth at the tournament and sixth for the season so it’s probably a fitting result. Looking back on the year, when we were good, we were very good and when we were bad, we were rotten. The highs and lows of that are too far apart so we need to flatten that out. That’s part of having a young squad, we’ve been guilty of inconsistencies so we need to look at that.”
South Africa won the 2016-17 World Series, with England finishing second and Fiji in third place.