Rugby Sevens: Captain’s last-gasp try Cooks up Shield victory after Kenya defeat

COLIN Gregor’s 11th-hour try gave Scotland a 19-17 win over the Cook Islands and the Shield on the second day of the Wellington Sevens in New Zealand yesterday.

But the Scottish side were unable to keep up the momentum from their previous two tournaments, where winning all three matches on day two won them the Bowl. Hopes of another clean sweep yesterday were ended when Scotland lost their opening game, the first match of the day, to a speedy Kenya, 14-5.

They will now travel to Las Vegas to compete in the fifth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series next weekend, taking on England, Kenya and Brazil.

Head coach, Graham Shiel, said yesterday: “It’s been a difficult weekend, I was really proud of how the guys performed yesterday. They put in good performances against New Zealand and Japan.

“The conditions today, however, were not good for sevens and 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 again 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 continuing to work very hard and have put in good performances against top-eight teams this weekend. They are also willing to make amends for today’s disappointment by refocusing and performing as well as they can in Las Vegas. It’s admirable that they have kept their heads held high after today.”

Having held Kenya in a deadlock for the entirety of the first half of the first game, some 30 seconds into the second period Kenya put their name on the scoreboard through Sidney Ashioya. Collins Injera then doubled their score soon after. It wasn’t until injury time that the Scots responded with Byron McGuigan adding the consolation to make it 5-14.

Scotland got off to a much better start against the United States.

Within four minutes they had added two scores to their tally, with McGuigan crossing the whitewash again, followed by James Fleming. However, in the second half their opponents matched their two scores with Roland Suinala scoring twice. It was captain Colin Gregor’s two successful conversions which tipped the balance in favour of Scotland, who won 14-12.

Against the Cook Islands the game was evenly matched for most of the contest, but Scotland’s opponents had the upper hand with 15 seconds to go before Gregor dived in for his second try of the match and stole the win. His efforts were bolstered by two conversions and a third touchdown from Michael Fedo.

New Zealand now lead the HSBC Sevens World Series with 73 points, having won the Wellington Sevens on home turf.

They beat Fiji 24-7 in the Cup final. Fiji are second in the rankings and Scotland currently sit in tenth place.

The 12 core teams will compete in three more legs of the circuit before gathering in Glasgow for the inaugural Glasgow Sevens at Scotstoun Stadium on the weekend of 5/6 May.