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29 March 2024

England retain Dubai Rugby Sevens title

Published
By Allaam Ousman

England turned on the style to win the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens Tournament for the fourth time with an exhilarating 29-12 victory against France in the Cup final at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai on Saturday.

This is the second time defending champions England have won back to back titles in Dubai after achieving this feat in 2004 and 2005.

England's victory in Dubai lifted them to second in the HSBC world series table, behind Fiji.

The 42nd edition of the event in Dubai was over as a contest after England roared on by massive crowd surged to 24-7 lead at the break with Mat Turner scoring two electrifying tries within a minute.

Isoa Damu, who scored twice in the semifinals against Fiji, was the first to breach the French defence.

Winger Dan Norton gave them a 12-0 lead with a fine chip and chase for his seventh try in Dubai this weekend after Damu made the initial break.

France playing in only their second Cup final in the HSBC Sevens World Series hit back through Renaud Delmas who scored the first of his two tries.  

But Turner virtually sealed England's victory with two brilliant tries, the second being his 50th try in his World Series career.

“I just love playing with these other six guys on the pitch and I am very happy with the result,” said Turner who was later named Star of the Tournament.

“We went back to basics and played well that was it,” added captain Greg Barden. “We had some tough games in the group stages and going back to basics allowed individuals to shine. We have great belief in our will.  We don’t get any easy games anymore so we did well,” he added.

France featuring in a Emirates Cup final in Dubai for the first time, fought back with a fine bout of passing which ended with Delmas getting his second try.

England hung on to their 24-12 cushion before Rob Vickerman put the icing on the cake with a late try to the delight of the partisan crowd.

"We played well. I was glad we had a hard game in the quarter-final and the semi-final. In the evolution of our team I think we raise our game when we play a hard team," said England coach Ben Ryan.

"We played some clever football out there and we were pretty ruthless. A 20-point win in an IRB world series final is not to be sniffed at."

“Mat’s acceleration off the base was phenomenal. He was a huge difference in the side,” Ryan said of Turner's two tries.
 
“Last year Ollie Linvey-Haig lit it up for us, this year Mat got all the plaudits and rightly so. We had gas at the base, gas on the wing with Dan Norton and with Isoa Damu in the middle as the glue that connected the two together. Our backline finally got going.”

Fiji won the third place playoff 26-21 against Argentina with Livai Ikanikoda scoring in the second minute of extra time after the scores were tied 21-all in regulation time.

Australia won a thrilling Plate final 17-14 against South Africa with Lewis Holland running almost the entire length of the pitch with a last gasp effort.

Canada won the inaugural IRB Women's Women's Sevens Challenge with an emphatic 26-7 win over favourites England who scored first through Joanne Watmore.

But the young Canadians completely outplayed their opponents thereafter scoring four unanswered tries through Cheryl Phillips, Ghislaine Landry, skipper Mandy Marchak and Ashley Steacy who converted three of the tries.

This was Canada's first ever piece of silverware in international women's rugby.

"This is what we have trained for.  This is first time we have won almost anything and it is what we were working for,” said an excited Canada captain Mandy Marchak afterwards.

“The girls worked really hard and were fantastic with their conditioning,” added coach John Tait. “The work they have done paid off and they got a little bit better every match.”

Earlier, England spurred on by two spectacular tries from Isoa Damu battled back to beat Fiji 19-12 in a thrilling Cup semifinal.

France saw off Argentina 24-5 to set up a final showdown with the three-time winners in Dubai.

Fiji, winners of the opening leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series in Gold Coast, Australia, got off to a terrific start when Emosi Vucago scored in the opening on the left corner after James Brown made the initial break for an unconverted try.

But England clawed their way back to breach the Fijian defence after some intense pressure with Damu powering his way through following a line out to draw level at 5-5.

Buoyed by this effort, England gained the lead for the first time after an expansive move which saw Chris Cracknell and Greg Barden denting the Fijian defence before Damu crashed over for his second try with Marcus Watson adding the extra points to give them a 12-5 lead at the break.

Mat Turner who denied Vucago a second try with a brilliant cover tackle shortly before the interval, sealed England's victory by slipping through several tackles from a breakdown to score under the posts.

Watson's conversion gave them a 19-5 cushion as England shut out Fiji with some solid defending.

It took the individual brilliance of Osea Kolinisau to put Fiji back in the hunt with just under two minutes left.

He zig zagged his way with body swerves through the backpeddling English defenders to score arguably the try of the match as Fiji closed the gap to 19-12.

Kolinisau sprung into action with a last-gasp effort on the stroke of time before being brought down 10 metres from the line and conceding a penalty to give England a memorable victory.

France were in control against Argentina scoring four tries, two by Renaud Delmas running over 60 metres for his second.

Terry Bouhraoua initiated the second before the break from inside France's goalline before sending Paul Albaladejo from the halfway mark.

Substitute Jean Baptiste Gobelet ended the semifinal as a contest after haring across following the restart after their third try.

Earlier, England bounced back to beat New Zealand 10-7 in the Cup quarter-final.

New Zealand, runners-up in Gold Coast in the opening leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series, were dominant in the opening exchanges and took a deserved 7-0 lead in the fourth minute of play when Tomasi Cama broke through the middle after a powerful run on the left from Frank Halai.

Mat Turner produced a spectacular dash from midfield after a quickly taken penalty for unconverted try before the interval.

New Zealand kept things under wraps with Cama threatening time and again but England's winger Dan Norton streaked across with a 60-metre dash on the left after Isoa Damu surged ahead for what turned out be the match-winning try to avenge their Cup quarter-final loss at the Gold Coast Sevens.

Fiji thumped Australia 34-7 to set up a semifinal showdown with England while France beat South Africa 19-5. They will meet Argentina who edged out Wales 7-5 in the other semifinal.

Meanwhile in the invitation tournaments, the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation team claimed their fifth consecutive International Vets title in emphatic fashion – without conceding a single point throughout the tournament. They defeated the Xodus Steelers 28-0 in the final.

The Jebel Ali Dragons claimed the Gulf Men’s title after a 29-7 win over the Abu Dhabi Harlequins I team and Dubai College took the hotly contested Gulf Under 18 boys title, defeating defending champions British School Al Khubairat 26-0 in the final. In the International Invitation tournament it was Dubai Samurai who took top honours with a 29-21 victory over hfw Wailers.

“We have been treated to a wonderful weekend of action once again and congratulations must go to the England men for a brilliant performance in claiming the Cup for a second consecutive year and Canada’s women’s team for claiming the inaugural IRB Women’s Sevens Challenge Cup,” said Gary Chapman, President Group Services and dnata, Emirates Group.

“The atmosphere has been tremendous and the thousands that have attended are testament to why the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens remains Dubai’s favourite sporting event,” added Chapman.

“We are also proud that the tournament has smashed the record for the number of live hours broadcast from a single round of the HSBC Sevens World Series with 222 hours of live television beamed to 120 countries."
 

Results

Emirates International Trophy

CUP

Quarter-finals
Fiji 34 Australia 7
England 10 New Zealand 7
Wales 5 Argentina 7
South Africa 5 France 19

Semifinals
Fiji 12 England 19
Argentina 5 France 24

Final
England 29 France 12

Third place playoff
Fiji 26 Argentina 21 (aet)

PLATE

Semifinals
Australia 26 New Zealand 12
Wales 7 South Africa 22

Final
Australia 17 South Africa 14
 

BOWL

Quarter-finals
Samoa 17 Canada 26
Zimbabwe 7 United States 41
Scotland 40 UAE 5
Portugal 24 Kenya 12

Semifinals
Canada 17 United States 33
Scotland 19 Portugal 17

Final
United States 0 Scotland 26
 

SHIELD

Semi-finals
Samoa 21 Zimbabwe 12
UAE 5 Kenya 35

Final
Samoa 31 Kenya 17

IRB Women's Challenge Cup

Semifinals
Canada 36 United States 0
England 12 Australia 10

Final
Canada 26 England 7