Rugby 7s preview: USA v Australia

Australia is set to face the USA five times over the next three days in preparation for the Commonwealth Games next month.

With the Aussie women's sevens team facing two months without a World Series tournament ahead of the Commonwealth Games, a deal was struck for the team to play the USA during the men's Las Vegas World Series event.

The team will be taking the matches seriously as the Gold Coast will be the first time the women's event is played at the Commonwealth Games.

Australia are also reigning Olympic gold medalist from Rio 2016 and have won the last two Sevens World Series events in Dubai and Sydney.

Aussie Sevens coach Tim Walsh is taking a full-strength side over with the exclusion of Emilee Cherry and Elia Green who have been rested.

The idea of the tournament it to simulate the format of April's Commonwealth Games.

It was a strategy implemented ahead of the 2016 Olympics where they played a mock series against Japan in the Olympic format.

Last time Australia faced the USA was in the Cup final of Dubai event were they came away 34-0 winners to remain undefeated during the tournament.

However, the USA was the surprise package in that tournament as they narrowly beat World Series Champions New Zealand in the quarterfinals to knock them out of the competition.

In Sydney, they started off the event with a loss to England before a 38-0 win over Japan but weren't able to score against New Zealand.

They made the quarterfinals where they faced Russia but Russia capitalised early in the match to advance into the semis as the USA faced Spain in the fifth place semi-final.

Spain scored a late winner to go to the fifth-place final against France who beat Ireland.

It wasn't the end to the tournament the USA were looking for as they found themselves at the end of a 19-10 loss to finish eighth.

It will be an interesting matchup for Australia who is currently undefeated and has only conceded 38 points in 12 matches in World Series events.