Samoa beat the Solomon Islands 48-0, American Samoa 50-0 and Papua New Guinea 41-7 to head confidently into Sunday’s quarterfinals.
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Update: 2:06PM THE Telecom Fijiana side is a step closer to the Rio Olympics in Brazil next year after qualifying for the final of the Oceania 7s Championship in New Zealand.
The Thunderbolts lived up to their nickname by blitzing all-comers in the eight-nation Oceania regional qualifier in Auckland to join their female counterparts at the 2016 Rio Games.
The Thunderbolts, ranked fifth in the world, narrowly missed automatic Olympic qualification by failing to finish in the top four on this year’s world series circuit.
A double to Pama Fou set the tone for the Aussies as they opened up a big half-time lead.
Much had been made of the idea that Australia would play Samoa in the final with Rio on the line but the Pacifiic Islanders had fallen to Tonga in the semi-final but did not have enough to challenge the men in yellow who were victorious 52.0.
At 31-0 down, the Tongans were out of the game and Australia went on with the job to cap a weekend of dominance.
Both the Australian women and the Fijian men have already qualified for Rio.
“I think they rested a few blokes yesterday for today”, he told AAP.
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Tonga was expected to provide the most competition in pool action but were never in the third hit-out as Australian captain Ed Jenkins crossed after just 20 seconds.
