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29 March 2024

Dubai Rugby Sevens: Fiji and New Zealand breeze into Cup quarter-finals

Savenaca Rawaca (left) of Fiji runs past a tackle from Allan Martin and Juliano Fiori of Brazil during their rugby match on the first day of the Dubai leg of IRB's Sevens World Series on December 5, 2014. (AFP)

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By Staff

Defending men’s Dubai-leg champions Fiji and HSBC Sevens World Series holders New Zealand breezed into the Cup quarter-finals of the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens while Scotland produced a stunning upset at The Sevens on Friday.

Gold Coast winners Fiji began by thumping 2013 Shield champions France 54-7 in their Pool A clash, eclipsing France's previously worst loss of 47-7 suffered in New Zealand in 2007.

Fiji went on to beat Dubai debutantes Brazil 31-5 and notched a 33-21 win over 2013 Plate champions Argentina.

But Fiji coach Ben Ryan was aware of the tough road ahead in their aim to win the series, having finished third last season.

“No, we’re not feeling invincible, I’ve been around on the circuit for way too long to think or say anything like that. We’ve started well, and that’s always important, since it just keeps the guys really confident ahead of the even tougher battles that are anticipated. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is going to be much tougher than it was for us last year. Just looking at some of the other sides progressing that have looked good – South Africa and New Zealand, especially – I think these are some really fit and powerful teams," said Ryan.

Five-time Dubai winners New Zealand, who have won 12 of the 15 overall titles so far, hardly broke a sweat as they romped to a 36-0 win over Pool B rivals Japan in their opening match.

“We were sketchy at times but also accurate at other times. This is the first time we’ve competed together in a few weeks, so it was a good start,” said New Zealand coach Sir Gordon Tietjens after their first outing.

The first Pool B game saw the first major upset of the tournament, as Scotland, who had only beaten round one finalists Samoa four times in 32 previous meetings, came from behind to win 21-14.

The Samoans were leading 14-0 after the first three minutes thanks to tries from Tom Losefo and Falemiga Selesele, which were both converted by Lolo Lui.

However, tries from James Johnstone, Mark Robertson and Scott Wight, which were converted by Colin Gregor, saw the momentum shifting rapidly and decisively in favour of the Scots.

Stunned by that defeat, Samoa assistant coach Galumalemana Rudolf Moors said: “We just made too many mistakes. In the first half, we focused on attack. But we just didn’t use the right wing at the right time. This just shows how tough the tournament is, for everybody – there are no easy matches at any point.”

Moors’ words would prophetic later, as the Samoans briefly revived their fortunes with a 38-12 win over Japan before being hammered 41-0 by New Zealand – a result that consigned them to third place in Pool B and ended their chances of lifting the Cup.

After bringing Scotland crashing back to earth with a 43-0 drubbing that extended their World Series winning streak against them to 29-0, New Zealand dismantled Samoa.

Asked about a potentially mouth-watering final against Fiji on Saturday, Tietjens said at the end of the preliminary stage: “We’re not worrying about Fiji at the moment, but if it does come down to facing them, we’ll have to set up some special tactics for them. They’re the form team at the moment, no doubt about that. But our main aim is to stay alive in the Cup championship and then try and win the title here. I think it is the most entertaining tournament in recent times. Every team is improving, so there are just no easy games. We saw how Scotland beat Samoa, who got to the Gold Coast Final. Just look the USA-England match, I mean there are just no easy outings here. On Saturday, the crowds can expect to see some cracking performances from us, provided we’re not affected by injuries or anything. We’ll be coming out strong and looking to go all the way, make no mistake – so it will be entertaining to watch.”

In the opening game of the men’s tournament, last season’s overall runners-up South Africa thumped last year’s Bowl runners-up Portugal 36-0 in their Pool D encounter.

South Africa then beat Canada 24-12, before beating 2013 Plate runners-up Wales 12-5 to win their pool.

Satisfied with his team’s efforts on day one, Powell said: “It’s getting tougher every year – all the teams are getting more and more professional. Obviously we’d like to go one better than last year – we come into tournaments not just to compete in them – we always want to win the trophy, always. There are some good, tough, physical sides coming up against us, so we need to be fit and ready for them. The guys are in great shape, they’re well-conditioned, and hopefully we can keep it up over the next two or three games.”

From Pool C, Australia and England qualified as winners and runners-up, respectively.

Australia, who finished a disappointing seventh at home in round one at Gold Coast, began their campaign with a 29-12 win over Kenya, before beating the USA 26-10.

England, who were third at Gold Coast, also had it easy in their first couple of outings, beating USA 19-10 and Kenya 38-0.

In their final pool game, Australia held their nerve emerging 12-5 winners.

The final day’s play in the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens kicks off on Pitch 1 at 9.30am, with the final scheduled for 8.12pm on Saturday.

Results

Pool A: Fiji 54 France 7, Argentina 17 Brazil 5, Fiji 31 Brazil 5, Argentina 26 France 21, France 24 Brazil 14, Fiji 33 Argentina 21;

Pool B: Samoa 14 Scotland 21, New Zealand 36 Japan 0, Samoa 38 Japan 12, New Zealand 43 Scotland 0, Scotland 47 Japan 0, Samoa 0 New Zealand 41;

Pool C: England 19 USA 10, Australia 29 Kenya 12, England 38 Kenya 0, Australia 26, USA 10, USA 26 Kenya 17; England 5 Australia 12;

Pool D: South Africa 36 Portugal 0, Wales 14 Canada 19, South Africa 24 Canada 12, Wales 26 Portugal 21, Portugal 26 Canada 7, South Africa 12 Wales 5

Quarter-final fixtures

Cup


11.00am Fiji vs Wales
11.22am Australia vs Scotland
11.44am South Africa vs Argentina
12.06pm New Zealand vs England

Bowl

9.30am: France vs Canada
9.52am: USA vs Japan
10.14am: Portugal vs Brazil
10.36am: Samoa vs Kenya