The Australian men's sevens team have missed the quarter-finals in Paris after a win and two losses on the opening day.
Andy Friend's side conquered Russia before narrowly falling to reigning Paris champions Samoa and Olympic gold medallists Fiji.
Australia will now play Japan in the Challenge Trophy quarter-finals on Sunday.
Damp conditions greeted both sides on Saturday and it was Russia who put first points on the board. Liam McNamara soon locked things up for a 7-7 halftime scoreline.
Russia again took the lead four minutes into the second term before James Stannard responded in kind. Simon Kennewell proved the hero with his try 30 seconds from fulltime, which converted by Stannard for a 19-12 win.
Against Samoa Australia were forced to play with six men for much of the clash following a red card to McNamara but managed to score first. That was as good as it got, however, with only a consolation try to Alex Gibbon adding some respectability to the 21-14.
The final match was between two sides who had already lost to Samoa and had everything to play for. Australia were unable to capitalise on an early yellow card for Fiji, who went to the break 14-7 ahead.
The Olympic champions drew first blood in the second term and marched to a 31-14 win.
"It was a day of frustration," Friend said.
"We started slowly against Russia; we weren't clinical in what we wanted to do. We worked hard against Samoa but again had opportunities and didn't take them. We came into a do-or-die game against Fiji and some parts were really good, and in other parts we were inaccurate and we paid the penalty there."
"On the whole as a team we didn't function well and that's something we need to get right for tomorrow.
"We're out of the cup quarter-finals which is disappointing so the focus and target now is to win three games tomorrow and get ourselves back into that top eight for London."
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