Rugby sevens superstar Maddison Levi has met her match in the shape of rising American ace Nia Toliver as Australia's women crashed out in the semi-finals of the Cape Town world series event.
In a rematch of their Olympic bronze-medal game won surprisingly by the USA back in August, Australia looked well on course to gain revenge as world player of the year Levi pulled off a superb steal-and-run try to put them 19-7 ahead in the second half of Sunday's last-four clash.
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But the powerhouse Toliver, one of the rising stars of the circuit, then took over with an astounding individual tour de force.
First, she delivered a superb solo try to give the Americans hope, before bulldozing through to earn the turnover that set up Alyssa Porter's score which left the US just two points behind.
Not finished, Toliver then earned the penalty which helped set up one final US attack which ended with her brushing off three challenges, including one from Levi, as she charged through and cheered before touching down for her second try with just 11 seconds on the clock, the Americans finally emerging triumphant 24-19.
It was the end of the Australians' hopes of back-to-back world series triumphs following their win in the Dubai Sevens the previous week, and their disappointment was compounded when they had to settle for fourth place, losing their bronze-medal match with France 17-14, despite two more tries for Levi.
The 22-year-old has now taken her tally to a series-leading 21 scores after just two tournaments following her record-breaking 15 in Dubai.
But the Aussies surrendered their overall lead in the series after Olympic champions New Zealand, who'd lost to them in the Dubai final, defeated the US 26-12 in the Cape Town final, despite another brilliant try from Toliver.
Tim Walsh, coach of Australia's women's team, admitted: "We don't have a good track record playing in third and fourth play-off matches and although it is rare we are playing in them, I will need to look at how we prepare and rectify how we perform in these matches. "But the two weeks on tour have been excellent for the squad. "We have blooded four debutants, had a try-scoring record, a season-opening series win, leadership experience, on and off-field growth and plenty of memorable moments."
He said the side were looking forward to the third leg of the series to be played in Perth in January.
Australia's men, who lost twice on the opening day, ended up with two wins on Sunday, 12-7 over Ireland and 19-12 over USA, to finish ninth overall in the tournament, as the South African hosts celebrated a victory for their 'Blitzboks', who defeated Olympic champs France 26-14 in the final.
"It’s a steep learning curve for our young team as there are limited domestic competitions to take part in and the only way to get exposed is on the World Series where the competition is extremely strong," National High Performance Manager Scott Bowen said. "Today was much improved but simply we won some of the big moments which wasn’t the case on Day 1. "I thought Michael Icely was outstanding over the weekend and Jayden Blake in his debut tournament had some really good involvements. "You have to remember we are regenerating with the likes of Nick Malouf, Nathan Lawson, Dietrich Roache, Maurice Longbottom and Josh Turner are all players who formed the nucleus of the squad in the Paris cycle and are either injured or no longer in the program as we move onto Los Angeles in 2028. "Post Olympics we have seen the teams that are transitioning their playing groups also such as Ireland, USA and are also struggling for consistency whereas the teams that have retained their core group such as Spain and South Africa have had good starts to the season. "It will be great to have our new head coach Liam Barry commence in the New Year as we get ready for our home tournament in Perth."
