Rugby Sevens: Scotland take positives and points from Australia

First-day pool losses to England (5-24) and Wales (12-14) and a win over Tonga (14-12) sent Graham Shiel’s side into the Bowl, where they beat Nuie 36-0 then the United States 19-5 to reach the final against the Pumas.

Andrew Turnbull’s late try was not quite enough to peg back Argentina, but Shiel was satisfied with his squad’s efforts over the wekend. “It’s good to get the first tournament under our belts in a Series where the calibre of the opponents and the level of competition has stepped up once again,” he said. “I’m happy with our day two performance as we stepped up our play and imposed ourselves in the knockout rounds.

“We’re obviously disappointed to lose the Bowl final with a couple of decisions which were uncharacteristic of how we played this weekend. However, those are the margins we operate in and we have to cope with that to pick up silverware on this stage.”

Under the new Series scoring system, the runners-up position banks seven Series points for the Scots, just one less than that of the winner. Their positive showings from the weekend, combined with the increased yield in points, means that they go into the second leg of the championship in Dubai with something positive to build upon.

Meanwhile, in the final, Fiji beat New Zealand 26-12 to win the Gold Coast title.