A silent second half from the All Blacks Sevens has seen them bundled out of the main draw at the Vancouver Sevens with a Cup quarter-finals loss to Australia.
Despite taking a 12-0 lead into the break, the All Blacks Sevens will now fight for fifth after losing 19-12 to their trans-Tasman rivals.
Following a pressured start from the Australians saw the All Blacks Sevens struggle to get out of their half in the opening minutes, Brady Rush opened the scoring by busting through two tackles for a runaway try down the right wing.
Australia looked set to reply shortly after the restart but the All Blacks Sevens' scrambling defence saw the Aussies come up short with the final pass inches from the try line resulting in a knock on instead.
The All Blacks Sevens used that to their advantage to add on to their lead with Tone Ng Shiu streaking away to the left corner to make it 12-0.
Again, Australia attempted a reply off the restart but their ball handling continued to let them down with a basic pass sailing into touch on halfway.
That gave New Zealand a chance to score one last time before the break - an opportunity that grew further with Aussie Josh Turner yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-down - but it wasn't meant to be.
Australia made the most of a sloppy start to the second half by the All Blacks Sevens to score in the opening minute through Ben Marr, making it 12-7.
They were immediately back on the attack again after New Zealand coughed up the ball on the restart but the Kiwi defence held their line for a solid two minutes.
Eventually though Australia found their moment to strike with Corey Toole streaking around the outside to score in the right corner.
That tied up the game at 12-12 with two minutes ago and again the Australians were back on the attack after winning the ball at the restart.
The constant state of defending began to show on the All Blacks Sevens as holes began to open up and sure enough the Australians were in again with Toole, this time on the left wing.
The All Blacks Sevens finally managed to win a restart but seconds after the final gave up a penalty, sealing their fate.
Earlier Monday, Samoa stunned World Series leaders South Africa with a superb 28-17 win in the Cup quarter-finals to set up a Pacific semis clash with Fiji.
Australia will play Argentina in the other Cup semi-final after they crushed England - the All Blacks Sevens' next opponents in the fifth-place semis.
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