The Australian women's rugby sevens team's defence of their Olympics title appears on track with an unbeaten day one of the Oceania Sevens competition.
Convincing wins over Fiji and the Oceania representative side has the Australians perfectly placed heading into their showdown with New Zealand on day two.
Points came swiftly for John Manenti's side as they shrugged off the rust of 12 months without international competition, playing expansive rugby to the delight of the home crowd in Townsville.
In their bruising and heavily physical clashes, the Aussie women were as tenacious in attack as they were defence, but it was the finishing of younger players that had back Chloe Dalton impressed.
"When you're putting in a lot of phases and then when you get the ball out wide to someone like Faith (Nathan) who can use her footwork and finish so nicely, overall it's nice to have people like that to finish it off," she said.
Charlotte Casslick's role as sweeper was pivotal in the 37-7 victory over Oceania, while Ellia Green and Emma Tonegato were also standouts on day one which included a 31-10 voctory over Fiji.
Coach John Manenti said their hot start was a great platform for a highly anticipated clash with their trans-Tasman rivals.
"They (New Zealand )looked red hot to, but Fiji showed you can put them under the pump and probably weren't consistent enough to finish that job," he said
"Hopefully we can come in tomorrow morning and and put in a really good performance that we can be proud of and I think if we do that we'll be write in the contes.
However, Friday didn't go as smoothly for the men's team as they lost to Fiji 26-14 before succumbing in a nail biter to New Zealand 24-21 at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.
Coach Tim Walsh saw much needed improvement in his side from their opening match against Olympic champions Fiji.
"I was much happier with that game, you know like teams are really strengthening up and polishing things up for their final games," he said.
"It was very much a physical game in, which probably suited the Kiwis a little bit more.
"So for us to go toe-to-toe and and win all of those battles, and then the game is just sitting in the balance... Yeah it would have been nice to be the other way around but we'll save that the Olympics."
Fiji and New Zealand sit top of the mens standings after day one with two wins from two.
In the women's competition Australia and New Zealand are set for their first of two meetings on Saturday, with both teams undefeated.
New Zealand's Portia Woodman was the stand-out player on day one bagging hat-tricks in consecutive games to lead the tournament with six tries.
Australian Associated Press
