The Australian Men’s Sevens are hungry to finish their Perth campaign on a positive note after their semi-final defeat to South Africa.
The Blitzboks booked their spot in the decider after a 28-12 win over the hosts, denying Australia their third-straight final in Perth.
Watch every match of this week's Perth SVNS live and on-demand, exclusively on Stan Sport.
They will face New Zealand for bronze, who were shut out by Fiji in the other semi-final.
The game was evenly posted just after half-time when Ben Dowling crossed to leave Liam Barry’s side trailing 14-12 following captain Henry Hutchison's first half try.
However, the turning point of the game came when Aden Ekanayake was yellow-carded for taking the man in the air after minimal contact from the resulting restart.
South Africa proceeded to expose the space as Sebastiaan Jobb scored his second of the game before a nine point lead.
Ricardo Duarttee sealed the match and the victory with two minutes to go.
“I think it was just little moments in that game where we just let it slip,” Ekanayake said.
“Right after halftime, I had that yellow card, but within two points we really put the pressure on the rest of the boys to still fight and come back.”
They will face their trans-Tasman rivals, who were blown away 35-0 by the Fijians after a red card to Akuila Rokolisoa.
Rokolisoa was shown the red early in the first half for a dumping tackle, allowing Fiji to race away with a comfortable win.
Australia captain Hutchison led an impassioned huddle after the match with the message key heading into the match with the Kiwis.
“The best thing about sevens is you get to go again and get to right the wrongs that you did in the last game,” Ekanayake said on the message.
“Five games over a weekend, you've got to bounce back, you've got to stay consistent to be in the top echelon. We’ve just got to flush it out, take our learnings and then get up for the next bronze medal match and come home with some silverware.
“We certainly want to be in the top three. The whole big build-up is towards the Olympics and these are the games that you want to be able to just get on the podium…it’d be nice to get one up them and come home with a bronze medal.”
The two sides played in the pool stages, with the Aussies parking any thoughts of a psychological advantage after yesterdays win.
“We take little things obviously but they’re going to come out firing. They're a really good outfit so we just need to step back up and get back on the saddle and make sure that we come away,” Ekanayake added.
South Africa 28 def Australia 12 (Tries: Hutchison, Dowling; Cons: Dowling)
