Michael Hooper scores first sevens try for Australia

Michael Hooper has made light of his first try for Australia’s national sevens team on a landmark day in his bid to play at the Olympics.

The Wallabies great, who’s switched to rugby’s short format in a bid to go for gold in Paris, dived over for his maiden score at the Singapore Sevens on Friday as both the Australian Olympic-bound men and women’s teams flourished.

The men defeated World Series-leading Argentina 26-19 in their opening fixture, with Hooper making just a brief cameo appearance at the end, but the 32-year-old was in the starting lineup which then beat Canada 21-14 to effectively seal a quarter-final spot.

The 125-times capped former Wallabies captain was set up for the easiest of first-half scores with a neat offload from the outstanding Dietrich Roache from a scrum play, as he popped up in a familiar support role to plow over for a first sevens try to go with his 22 in the international fifteens game.

“I fell over the line well, didn’t I?” Hooper joked.

“That’s all I had to do – two meters out and I just had to fall over the line, so if Dietrich can give me a couple more of those offloads, I’ll be happy.”

That was far from all he did, with Hooper also winning a key turnover in the second half as John Manenti’s side went on to prevail with other scores from Nick Malouf and Hayden Sargeant.

The win against a strangely sluggish Argentina outfit had been even more impressive, with James Turner going over for a double and Ben Dowling and Nathan Lawson also scoring before a late rally from the Pumas.

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“Today we just wanted to get through two matches really clean, be clinical and smart on pour defense which sets up our game,” said Hooper.

“With Argentina, we had to have really strong defense against great ball carriers, and the same against Canada, we fought back well into this one.”

The Australian women, who are level at the top of the world series table alongside their serial New Zealand rivals, started their campaign by beating Brazil 27-10, featuring a hat-trick from Faith Nathan, and followed up with a superb eight-try 44-0 win over Great Britain.

Nathan grabbed two more tries while Maddison Levi made her total three for the day as she now moves to third all-time for most World Series tries for Australia.

Young gun Sidney Taylor also scored his first try for Australia with three minutes to go.