Centre Brackin Karauria-Henry scored a hat-trick of tries against France as the young Australian team made a strong start to the IRB World Series rugby sevens tournament in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Australia demolished France 38-0 and maintained their clean sheet with a clinical 33-0 defeat of Guyana in game two.

Australia narrowly lost their final pool match to series leaders New Zealand 12-7, but coach Michael O'Connor's men did enough to finish second in Pool A and secure a place in the Cup quarter-finals where they will take on Fiji on Sunday.

The Australians would be proud of their improving results against New Zealand after going down 24-12 in Wellington last weekend and closing the gap to a solitary try in a closely-fought encounter on Saturday.

Karauria-Henry scored his three tries within just five minutes in the win over France with Kimami Sitauti, Jacob Taylor and Clinton Sills also bagging five-pointers.

After three tournaments on the eight-leg IRB Series, Australia are in fifth with 30 points.

New Zealand currently top the table with 64 points after two tournament wins.

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