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Australian coach Michael O’Connor has called for further improvement from his squad as they prepare to tackle the iconic Hong Kong Sevens this weekend (26-29 March).

Despite Australia achieving their second successive Cup semi-final appearance in Adelaide last Sunday, O’Connor says a handful of personnel changes prevented his team from taking the next step-up and showing their true potential by qualifying for the Cup final.

Australia hit form during the fourth-stop of the IRB Sevens World Series in Las Vegas last month, but were unable to carry the momentum into Adelaide after losing three key players to injury.

The loss of Australian leading try-scorer Clinton Sills (hamstring) was an enormous blow to the side, despite canny centre Brackin Karauria-Henry stepping up and scoring five tries in front of an appreciative Adelaide home crowd.

Rookies Ed Stubbs and Sam Latunipulu made their IRB Series debuts in Adelaide, replacing more experienced campaigners Bernard Foley (ankle) and Brian Sefanaia (cruciate).

Escaping injury-free from Adelaide will prove kind to the Australians and dual international O’Connor has no doubt that if his young charges stick to the plan and focus on teamwork – they’ll make their first Cup Final appearance since 2002.

“Reaching the Cup Semi-Final in Hong Kong is a realistic goal – that’s what we’ll be aiming for that’s for sure but if we can make the next step up from our performance in Las Vegas, we’ll hopefully reach the final,” O’Connor said.

“We just want to improve as a team, there wasn’t a great improvement from Las Vegas to Adelaide and that was because we had a lot of team changes and different combinations to work with.

“This weekend we’re concerned with continuing that improvement and concentrating on teamwork.

“We didn’t move forward in Adelaide, if anything we went backwards a little bit despite our result – but we’re looking to really go forward again and reach the final.”

Australia have been beaten in their last two Cup Semi-Finals appearances by Samoa, who were crowned champions in Las Vegas and then followed up with an even stronger performance in Adelaide to narrow the gap to Series leaders New Zealand to just two points on the IRB Sevens World Series standings.

The Australians went down by just two points to Samoa in Las Vegas but were comprehensively beaten in Adelaide, 26-12.

O’Connor’s squad, with just 51 caps to its name, overtook England into fourth place on the points table and just 12 points separate them from third-placed Fiji.

In Hong Kong, the most popular event of the IRB Series, captain Patrick McCutcheon’s side have been drawn in Pool D alongside China, Tonga and Canada.

If form is a key indicator, Australia should advance to the Cup quarter finals on Sunday and will take on either England or Wales for a place in their third-successive Cup Semi-Final.

Australia: Patrick McCutcheon (captain), Robbie Coleman, Liam Gill, Talalelei Gray, Brackin Karauria-Henry, Samisoni Latunipulu, Ed Quirk, Dominic Shipperley, Kimami Sitauti, James Stannard, Ed Stubbs, Jacob Taylor.