Dubai: Australia made up for a disappointing group-stage effort at the Emirates Dubai Rugby Sevens with a 17-12 Bowl final win over Portugal at The Sevens stadium here on Saturday.
The Wallabies surprisingly failed to make the cup quarter-finals after losing to both Wales and Scotland on Friday, but they bounced back with wins over US, Samoa and Portugal.
Portugal went ahead early in the final thanks to Aderito Esteves, but Pedro Leal missed the conversion. Australia got in front before the interval after Tom Lucas got over the line and Paul Asquith added the extras.
Luke Morahan continued Australia’s charge with another try, but after Asquith missed his kick Portugal were able to sneak back to 12-12 when Pedro Leal converted Carl Murray’s score.
Australia didn’t let that stand for long, however, and Asquith made up for his kicking inaccuracies with a late try, which James Stannard failed to convert.
Australia had got to the bowl final after beating the US 47-7 in the quarter-finals and Samoa 19-14 in the semis.
They were a surprise absence in the main draw quarter-finals after losing 21-17 to Scotland and 19-14 to Wales, either side of a 45-0 hammering of Spain.
It was a massive shock for the Wallabies not to feature in the later stages of the second round of the 2013/14 HSBC World Sevens Series, as they were runners-up in round one at home in October.
Portugal, meanwhile, reached the final with a 24-7 quarter-final win over Russia and 33-24 semi-final defeat of Canada, after recovering from two group losses against Kenya 10-7 and New Zealand 38-0 with a 19-12 win over France.
France had earlier won the shield final with a 28-17 victory over Spain, who had raced into a 12-0 lead thanks to early tries from Jaike Carter and Ignacio Martin, with Igor Genua converting the second.
But France turned it around to lead 14-12 before the break with tries from Jonathon Laugel and Julien Candelon, both converted by Paul Albaladejo.
Vincent Deniau and Candelon then carried French momentum forward into the second half, taking the score to 28-12 as Albaladejo continued his 100 per cent conversion record.
France’s Laugel was sin-binned before the end, allowing Spain to creep in with a late consolatory try from Francisco Hernandez, but he missed his follow-up kick.
France got into the shield final after losing their bowl quarter-final to Samoa 21-10 before winning their shield semi-final against the US 19-14. Spain, meanwhile, lost their bowl quarter-final to Canada 22-12 but made up for it with a 17-5 win over Russia in the shield semi-final.
