‘Surreal’ moment as Sid’s match-winner guides Aussies to bronze finish

Some of the greatest moments in sporting history have been forged by Australian athletes wearing the green and gold, and Narrabri’s Sid Harvey added one of his own on Sunday night when he scored a final-second match-winning try for the Australian rugby sevens team in Hong Kong.

Having gone down against eventual champions Argentina in their semi-final, the Aussies lined up against Fiji in the bronze medal match in the fifth tournament of the 2025 World Rugby Sevens series at Kai Tak Stadium.

Tries to Hayden Sargent in the fourth minute and James Turner in the sixth minute put the Aussies ahead 12-7 after their opponents had struck in the first minute of the contest, but the Fijians added two more converted tries in the eighth and ninth minutes to go ahead 21-12.

An Aden Ekanayake try with three minutes remaining gave Australia hope of securing a bronze finish, and Harvey helped secure it when the 19-year-old Narrabri boy dived over for the match-winning try on the bell.

The Aussies had won a late penalty and they tapped from 25 metres out with 13 seconds on the clock before producing a brilliant set move that saw Harvey receive the ball in the centre of the field. He darted across to the right edge and threw a pass to winger James Turner, who beat his defender down the outside and then threw a pass back inside to Harvey before being taken out by a retreating defender, and the supporting number 15 went over untouched to make the final score 22-21 in Australia’s favour.

For Harvey, scoring the match-winner for his country was a moment that he will remember forever.

“It was a bit surreal,” Harvey told The Courier.

“It was something that felt straight out of a dream that you wake up from and want to go back into, really.

“I shifted the ball to Jimmy Turner early to let him do his thing. He’s a pretty gun footballer and normally he beats his first man. He beat him on the outside and I stayed in support on the inside and he got it to me and I fell over the line.

“Looking up into the stands after it was pretty cool. 10,000 or so people there cheering; I won’t forget that, for a little while.

“It was a really good result for us. We came into it knowing what rode on this tournament, locking in a spot for Los Angeles. It was really good to solidify that.

“I wasn’t too stressed about how much I played. I was 13th man for five of the games but sitting up in the stands and watching the boys play so well was awesome.

“I was still doing a job in the warm-ups and bringing the energy. I was priding myself on that.

“But getting the opportunity in the third-place game was awesome. I was really happy to be there.”

Making the moment even more special for the Narrabri youngster was having his mother Carmel in the crowd, who had tears in her eyes as she gave him a big hug from the stands after the match.

The special moment was caught by media company RugbyPass and has been widely shared on social media this week.

“That moment; it probably topped everything really,” Harvey said.

“Scoring the try was awesome, but celebrating with mum was special. She probably would have been just as proud of me if I’d knocked it on over the line as well.

“She’s a big part of everything I do in footy. Mum and dad both are.

“I was looking along the fence for her after the game hoping she’d come down and I spotted the bright green jumper. It was really cool that moment was caught on camera.”

Harvey did not see any game time earlier in the tournament after being used as the 13th man in his side’s three pool matches, the quarter-final and the semi-final.

The Aussies placed second in their pool after going down 21-12 in their tournament opener to New Zealand before bouncing back to beat South Africa 26-7 and Uruguay 28-12. That saw them book a quarter-final spot against Great Britain, who they demolished 34-5 before going down 31-7 against Argentina in the semi-final.

The other semi-final saw France outscore Fiji 24-17 to join Argentina in the decider, and the Pumas were too strong as they took down the French 12-7 to register their third consecutive gold finish to extend their run at the top of the standings.

Australia’s bronze game victory saw them claim a second podium finish in five tournaments after they earned silver in Perth back in January. They are now outright sixth overall on the 12-team ladder after entering the Hong Kong tournament locked on 38 points with New Zealand.

The bronze finish also saw Australia lock in a spot in the top eight to secure a place in the World Championships finals series at Los Angeles’ Dignity Health Sports Park in May.

They will play their sixth and final tournament of the series this weekend in Singapore, where favourable results could see them climb as high as fourth on the standings.

They have been placed into a three-team pool alongside third-placed Spain and 10th-placed Uruguay for the Singapore tournament, with the team that finishes first to go through to the semi-finals with the other three pool winners.

The team that finishes second will progress to battle for fifth place with the other three second-placed pool finishers, and the team that ends up third will go through to battle for ninth with the other three third-placed pool finishers.

That format is used for the second tournament of a back-to-back weekend to reduce minutes for the players as they are only required to play a maximum of four matches instead of a maximum of six, as Australia did in Hong Kong.