Scottish Sevens side lift Shield after early exit from Bowl

Published on Monday 6 February 2012 01:59

Scotland Sevens team clinched the Shield at the the Wellington Sevens with a 19-17 win over the Cook Islands on Saturday.

Hopes of winning the Bowl had fallen flat at the first hurdle, when Graham Sheil’s team proved no match for Kenya, going down 14-5 to fall in to the Shield competition, Byron McGuigan scoring the Scots’ consolation.

Next they faced the United States. Within four minutes they scored twice, McGuigan crossing the whitewash again, followed by James Fleming. In the second-half, USA matched their two scores with Roland Suinala scoring twice. Captain Colin Gregor’s two successful conversions tipped the balance in the Scots’ favour for a 14-12 win.

The final match against Cook Islands was evenly matched for the most part. The Scots’ opponents had the upper hand before Gregor dived in for his second try of the match with 15 seconds to go and stole the 19-17 win. His efforts were bolstered by two conversions and a third touchdown by Michael Fedo. Scotland will travel to Las Vegas to compete in the fifth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series next weekend, initially taking on England, Kenya and Brazil.

Shiel said: “It’s been a difficult weekend. We just didn’t get started against Kenya. We had very little possession and under-achieved. It was not a nice way to start the day but we paid the price and had to move on. Against the United States we put more character into our performance and we improved a bad situation and got the outcome we needed. The Cook Islands was more difficult and with a few minor knocks we were limited and couldn’t really open the gap between us and them.

“The players are determined to make amends for the Bowl disappointment by refocusing and performing as well as they can in Las Vegas.”

New Zealand now lead the HSBC Sevens World Series with 73 points, having won the Wellington Sevens. They beat Fiji 24-7 in the Cup final.

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The Lord

Monday, February 6, 2012 at 10:28 PM

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ben doonagan

Monday, February 6, 2012 at 08:00 PM

A total farce .....same excuses after every tournament...unlucky ...were improving ..wrong options..looking forward to next tourney............blah.blah.blah. Mr Shiel picked the players .....some are just cannon fodder and obviously haven't got a scooby doo about the 7s game....changes need to be made pronto and bring in players who actually know how to play the 7s game....ie...Gillespie..Darling..Hutton..Thomson are examples ...not this dross

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The Lord

Monday, February 6, 2012 at 12:50 PM

Agree. Nice though for the lads to have a spell in the sun, nice hotels, nice facilities, bit of a tan. never mind we will be independant soon and a 3rd rate nation like the Cook islands and Kenya etc etc. Dan Parks could play for them and get him t f outta here.

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Auld Reekie

Monday, February 6, 2012 at 10:50 AM

This result in the lowest tier of the tournament is total failure for a team of full time 7s players.....to just beat a team from the Cook Islands.......Ill repeat again...the Cook Islands ...says it all about this team ....really dire.........taxi for Shiel ....

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