Scots must go for broke in Vegas

The Scotland sevens side have once again missed their goal of a place in a HSBC Sevens World Series Cup quarter-final after losing out to Kenya (14-17) and England (7-12) in the early hours of yesterday morning on the west coast of America.

The side will still, however, be able to reach a top-seeded Bowl quarter-final at the USA Sevens in Las Vegas if they beat Brazil in the second day of the competition. For head coach Graham Shiel, this is a must. He said: “We’re disappointed; we didn’t play well enough and didn’t apply enough pressure. Though the scores were close we made mistakes and missed opportunities. We were our own undoing.

“We are now bound for the Bowl competition. Therefore, we can only target a win in this and get four victories in the tournament.”

As ever, the Scots’ opening match against Kenya was a close-fought affair with either team looking able to come out on top. Youngster Sean Kennedy opened the scoring within a minute of kick-off and his efforts were complemented by the boot of Colin Gregor.

Kenya managed to match their try count, as Humphrey Kayange crossed the line in the first period but missed the conversion so the Scots went in at the break on top. However, two early scores from Kayange and team-mate Collins Injera in the second-half were enough to seal the victory.

With seconds left on the clock Kennedy scored again and Gregor converted, but it simply wasn’t enough and Kenya won 17-14.

Next up were England and with a minute left on the clock the scores were level, with Kennedy having scored his third try of the day.

Unfortunately, a decision that should have benefited the Scots turned on its head and resulted in a match-winning try from England’s Christian Lewis-Pratt. England managed to turnover a quick-tap penalty after their man Dan Norton was sent-off. Shiel concluded: “We played well against England, our defence was strong, our attack looked confident and we managed to apply sustained periods of pressure throughout the match.”

New Zealand, Samoa, Fiji, South Africa, Kenya and England were all unbeaten after the opening day of action. Of those sides, New Zealand, Samoa, Kenya and England are mathematically guaranteed a place in the Cup quarter-finals.

World Series leaders New Zealand maintained their 100 per cent record on the day with a 42-5 victory against Japan and 31-5 defeat of rivals Australia.