Photo: rugby.com.au / Karen Watson

University of Queensland have gone back-to-back, claiming their second successive title in the Aon Uni 7s series with an after the bell win over Bond University in the gold medal decider at Macquarie University on Sunday.

In what was a repeat of the final in round one in Launceston a fortnight ago, the lead changed hands several times before Dutch star Bodil Van Wijnbergen crossed for the all-important score to give UQ the 22-17 victory, and a four-point lead at the top of the series ladder with two events remaining.

Now unbeaten in all 10 of their competition matches, it will take some effort for another side to run UQ down, especially as the series now heads to their home turf in Brisbane this weekend for round three. Bond University appear to be in the best position to challenge after their two runners-up placings, but fellow semi-finalists Griffith University and Macquarie University have also shown they cannot be ruled out of the equation.

Having finished second in their respective pools on Saturday, they played out their own replay of their Bronze Medal clash in Tasmania, Griffith winning out this time 20-5 to avenge that loss to MU and join them in joint-third place on the series ladder.

The big improvers over the weekend were University of Adelaide. Having won just one of their five matches in Launceston, they also lost their opening two games on Saturday. But the introduction of Wallaroos star Mahalia Murphy eventually paid off with a win over University of Canberra, and the confidence they took from that game was evident on Sunday, as they racked up two more wins to claim 5th place overall.

Murphy racked up an impressive five tries over the two days, but it was Griffith University’s Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea that took the individual try-scoring plaudits with six in her five games.

Leading try-scorers:

6
Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea (Griffith University)

5 =
Olivia Brooks (Macquarie University)
Mahalia Murphy (University of Adelaide)

4 =
Rhiannon Byers (University of New England)
Emilee Cherry (University of Queensland)
Eva Karpani (University of Tasmania)
Evania Pelite (University of Tasmania)
Kim Resch (University of New England)
Cassandra Staples (University of Canberra)

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Finals Results:

Fifth-Place Semi-Finals

University of Adelaide 20 University of Tasmania 10

University of Canberra 24 University of New England 12

Gold Medal Semi-Finals

Bond University 17 Griffith University 10

University of Queensland 10 Macquarie University 7

Seventh-Place Play-Off

University of New England 10 University of Tasmania 5

Fifth-Place Play-Off

University of Adelaide 27 University of Canberra 5

Bronze Medal Play-Off

Griffith University 20 Macquarie University 5

Gold Medal Play-Off

University of Queensland 22 Bond University 17