Rugby Sevens: Scotland cruise to Bowl victory for second time in succession

SCOTLAND proved again that they are the best of the rest with a second Bowl triumph in the HSBC Sevens World Series.

After effectively finishing ninth in Dubai, the Scots, led well by Colin Gregor and with James Fleming again revealing his stunning pace, missed out on qualifying for the cup quarter-finals following their defeats by France and New Zealand, but they comfortably came through the bowl with wins over Kenya and Argentina before sealing a 22-19 victory against Canada in the final.

The score appears close, but Scotland recovered from a bad start to cruise into a commanding lead and come back again to score the winning try with a minute to go.

A try at the death for Canada was too little too late as Scotland controlled the last minute to ensure that they would return to Scotland with another bowl success.

In the main tournament, New Zealand broke out of their half to score on the hooter and steal a 31-26 win over heartbroken hosts in the final.

The New Zealanders hacked the ball downfield with five seconds to play and Toby Arnold collected and handed off to Tomasi Cama behind the posts for the playmaker’s 100th career try and the tournament-clinching score as the hooter sounded.

The last-gasp try saw defending series champions New Zealand retain their title in South Africa and claim their first tournament win of the season to tie with series leaders Fiji. They lead South Africa by three points, and England by four. South Africa appeared to have wrapped up an epic, see-saw final with second-half tries by Steven Hunt and Cecil Afrika for a 26-17 lead with two minutes to play.

Frank Halai’s second long-range try helped close it to 26-24 before the dramatic late twist. With less than 50 seconds left, South Africa had New Zealand pinned in their 22 but gave away a penalty.

New Zealand attacked, spilled the ball near halfway and a hopeful kick through left Arnold and Cama as the only chasers.

“That’s what you want to see in the final. Regardless of who won, it was an awesome game,” New Zealand captain DJ Forbes said. “Everyone will remember this game.”

Earlier at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, the new venue for the South African leg of the sevens world series, Samoa beat England 17-14 in the third-place play-off and Wales shocked Fiji 48-0 to win the Plate.

But it was the Cup final, in which the lead changed hands four times, which was the undoubted highlight of the weekend’s competition.

Meanwhile, Scotland have again been drawn in the same pool as New Zealand for the fourth leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series in Wellington on 3-4 February. In what is another tough pool, the Scots will also face Samoa. The fourth team in the Scotland pool is Japan who, for the first time, will stage a leg of the World Seven Series this season.

Despite missing the cut for the Cup quarter finals in all three of the opening group of tournaments, Scotland have made their best start to the World Sevens Series by winning the Bowl trophy at the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens and at the South Africa Sevens in Port Elizabeth while finishing runners up in the Bowl competition in the Gold Coast Sevens last month.

As a result Scotland have amassed 23 points, to claim tenth place on the overall standings after three rounds, behind ninth-placed Argentina who have 25 points. Samoa are in eighth position with 32 points. At the top of the standings are Fiji and New Zealand who are tied on 51 points.