Scotland fightback falls short against Americans

Published on Sunday 3 April 2011 17:30

Scotland's Sevens side were knocked out of the Adelaide Sevens Bowl semi-final by the United States yesterday.

After a tough start to the tournament on day one, with consecutive defeats to Cup semi-finalists England (45-7) and seventh-placed Argentina (22-7), a 19-14 win over Papua New Guinea set up yesterday's Bowl quarter-final with the Cook Islands.

A comfortable 28-0 win over the Islanders put the Scots through against the USA but a poor start was to prove their ultimate undoing and, despite a gutsy comeback, they went down 29-19.

Scotland Sevens head coach Graham Shiel said: "The players took a lot of confidence from the Cook Islands match into the USA game and ultimately we put ourselves in a position to win the semi-final. In the second half we were pushing really hard and were accurate for that period to change the momentum of the match but we couldn't sustain that level of performance and eventually relinquished possession and ultimately the scores."

Two tries in either half had put Scotland through to the semis without conceding a single point. Andrew Turnbull and Fraser Harkness crossed the line in the first period followed by a second Turnbull score after the break before Andrew Skeen made it four with just a minute of the match remaining. Skeen's competence in converting tries was unwavering throughout the match as he slotted four from four kicks to make for a trouble-free scoreline against the relatively inexperienced Cook Islanders. The win lined the Scots up with the USA in the penultimate round. The Americans earned the right to play for a place in the final with a hard-fought 22-19 quarter-final win over Shield winners Japan.

Pivotal to the Scots' undoing against the United States was their start to the match, as their opponents ran in three tries for no reply to make for a daunting half-time score of 19-0. After the interval, however, it was apparent a Scots fightback was on as it took them just 40 seconds to get their first try with Mike Adamson registering the unconverted effort before Ross Miller added another two minutes later.

Skeen's conversion meant that a single converted score then separated the teams. The USA hit back with two unconverted tries, however, to put them all but through to the final, though the Scots refused to throw in the towel and held on to the ball for a minute and a half after the hooter until Andrew Turnbull crossed for the consolation try which Skeen converted. Scotland now head to London on 21-22 May in the eight-leg HSBC Sevens World Series, which comes to a climax at Murrayfield on the weekend of 28-29 May.

New Zealand, meanwhile, stretched their lead at the top of the World Series standings as they beat South Africa 28-20 in the final of the main competition.The final proved a closely-fought contest until Gordon Tietjens' side sealed the win with a late try from Tomasi Cama.

England's bid had been derailed at the semi-final stage as they were easily seen off 19-0 by South Africa, while New Zealand were 33-17 winners over defending series champions Samoa. New Zealand's win means they are now 13 points clear of England having won four of the six rounds so far this season, with Samoa in third followed by South Africa and Fiji.

Fiji endured a tough tournament as they were dumped out in the quarter-finals of the main Cup tournament before losing 22-21 to Wales in their Plate semi-final. The Welsh went on to win the Plate competition by beating Argentina 14-7 in the final.

Day One results: England 45 Scotland7, Argentina 22 Scotland 7, Scotland 19 Papua New Guinea 14.

Day Two results: Bowl quarter-final: Scotland 28 Cook Islands 0. Bowl semi-final: USA 28 Scotland 19.

Scotland squad: M Adamson (Glasgow Hawks), T Bury (Boroughmuir), G Fisken (West of Scotland), M Fedo (Team Northumbria), F Gillies (Glasgow elite development/Currie), F Harkness (Selkirk), J Johnstone (Glasgow elite development/Currie), J Macdonald (Cardiff University), R Miller (Glasgow Hawks), R Samson (Edinburgh), A Turnbull (Edinburgh), A Skeen (Watsonians).