Rugby Sevens: Scots fall to Spain in Bowl semi

MUCH to the delight of the Scotstoun boo-boys, New Zealand proved too strong and clinical for a fast-improving England side yesterday and claimed the inaugural Emirates Airline Glasgow 7s title.

Their inspirational captain DJ Forbes brought the curtain down on his 50th world series tournament with the last try in a 29-14 win, but refused to accept that with a lead of 11 points on perennial rivals Fiji going into the last event at Twickenham they had a tenth world series crown in the bag.

“We have got one hand on the cup now, but we still haven’t done it yet,” he said. “We are taking nothing for granted. We have to start again now.

“This has been a fantastic tournament. Our guys dug really deep against a good English side, but we were hanging out for a win out there. It was an awesome occasion and I feel so honoured to have a win like this on my 50th.”

To win the series at Twickenham, New Zealand only have to win the second-tier Plate competition – which teams drop into if they fail to reach the Cup quarter-finals – and they have never failed to reach the last eight of the Cup.

For Scotland coach Graham Shiel the weekend collapsed on Saturday’s agonising defeats to Wales and South Africa in their opening two ties. In both matches, the Scots did enough to win, but could not hold out at the death and conceded last-minute tries to succumb to defeat. They routed Russia 33-5, who would go on to win the Bowl, and then edged a close encounter with Kenya yesterday morning 19-12 with a hat-trick of tries from speedster Andrew Turnbull.

However, despite a vociferous home crowd in full party mood roaring them on, the Scots committed the cardinal sevens sin of giving up possession too easily against Spain, and missed tackles by wings Turnbull and James Fleming let Cesar Sempere and Javier Carrion in for tries in either half. Turnbull’s try before the break was one brief moment of delight for the near-10,000 support.

Shiel said: “We have to play at our very best to win these games, and we were below our best in that game and that’s the result you get.

“It’s hugely disappointing. Regardless of where it is and when it is, it was a performance that we just didn’t front up in. That’s disappointing as a player in any context in any environment, but on this stage the consequences of that are huge.

“You make errors and you get punished. That’s something we don’t live with very much in Scottish rugby but at this level it’s a reality. We fell off tackles and didn’t take our opportunities and that is the difference between winning and losing in sevens.

“All the players have the ability to play on this stage, but it’s a very challenging stage to be on. It’s definitely a very positive way for us to develop players, and the players enjoy being on that stage, but the reality is that we have to be at our best all the time to be competitive and take the steps we wanted to take today.”

Asked if he felt they let the Scottish crowd down, he added: “Yeah. We played well yesterday. Our performances were solid and, overall, I’m happy with four of the five performances, but ultimately the aim was to get to a final and give the crowd something to cheer for. The crowd have been fantastic all weekend and we’re disappointed that we couldn’t give them more.”