Samoa take Twickenham spoils

Editor 26 May 2008 12:44 AM

Samoa beat Fiji 19-14 in a bruising final at Twickenham to win the London leg of the IRB World Sevens series, but New Zealand secured the overall title.

Samoa beat Fiji 19-14 in a bruising final at Twickenham to win the London leg of the IRB World Sevens series.

But their efforts were surpassed by the New Zealanders who wrapped up their series defence, despite falling at the quarter-final stage to England.

Lolo Lui scored a hat-trick of tries as Samoa led 19-7 at the break of the final, and although Fiji fought back in the second half, it proved too little too late and Nasoni Roko's late try to equalise was correctly ruled out by referee David Keane after a late tackle in the build up to the try.

While New Zealand missed out on the Cup semi-finals, beaten by Tom Biggs's late try for hosts England, the Kiwis did clinch the defence of their IRB Sevens World Series title with one event to spare.

Having won the first five events of the season in Dubai, George, Wellington, San Diego and Hong Kong, and finished runners-up in Adelaide, New Zealand entered this tournament hot favourites to tie up an eighth Series win. While they lost their London title, Nigel Hunt's late winner in the Plate final against South Africa proved a fitting way to celebrate their continued dominance of the Series crown.

New Zealand now have 134 points from seven events, 36 clear of South Africa on 98, who lead the race for second place from Fiji (90) and Samoa (88).

New Zealand exacted revenge on South Africa for their defeat in the Adelaide Cup final, winning the final of the Plate 19-12 with a try at the death by Nigel Hunt.

Both sides responded well to the disappointment of being dumped out of the Cup at the start of the second day and the high calibre final was as tight as the score suggests.

Australia beat Wales 19-12 to win the London Bowl and take two points in the IRB Sevens World Series.

The Australians led by two tries to one at the break, Peter Owens and Willy Bishop scoring either side of Aled Brew's effort, and in the second half Caleb Brown's converted stretched their lead to 19-7. Rhodri McAtee pulled one back for the Welsh with a couple of minutes to play but Australia held on.

Spain won a famous 10-7 victory against the fifth-ranked Sevens side in the world Kenya to win the Shield at Twickenham.

Ignacio Martin crossed for the Spanish to lead 5-0 at the break and Cesar Sempere doubled their lead after the break. Horace Otieno grabbed a late consolation for the African side but could not prevent Spain claiming a first piece of IRB Sevens World Series silverware since 2004.

Meanwhile, England's women claimed their second win on the bounce against the New Zealand Aotearoa Maori at Twickenham, 14-10.

Emma Layland put the home side ahead but New Zealand bounced back just before half-time when Black Ferns stalwart Anna Richards set up Selica Winiata. Richards missed the conversion keeping England 7-5 ahead at the break. After the restart Ngahuri Thomas put the tourists 10-7 ahead but in the last seconds of the match Gemma Sharples beat two defenders to score.

The fixture also marked an historic day with New Zealand's women playing their first international at Twickenham stadium.

England and their coach Simon Amor now head to Edinburgh for the Home Nations Sevens tournament next Sunday hoping to secure three tournament wins on the trot.

DAY TWO – RESULTS:

CUP:

M29: New Zealand 15-17 England
M30: Samoa 17-7 Portugal
M31: Fiji 19-17 Scotland
M32: South Africa 0-12 Argentina

Semi-final: England 12-14 Samoa
Semi-final: Fiji 21-17 Argentina

Final: Samoa 19-14 Fiji

BOWL:

M25: Wales 26-0 Spain
M26: Russia 12-17 Canada
M27: Australia 17-0 Kenya
M28: France 24-7 Moldova

BOWL:

Semi-final: Wales 31-0 Canada
Semi-final: Australia 21-7 France

Final: Wales 12-19 Australia

SHIELD:

Semi-final: Spain 12-7 Russia
Semi-final: Kenya 24-5 Moldova