Unlucky loss to Wales drops Scots into bowl competition

AN AGONISING last-gasp try by Wales put paid to a bright launch to the new HSBC Sevens World Series for Scotland yesterday as defeats to England and the Welsh dropped Graham Shiel’s men into today’s bowl competition.

Scotland will face the tiny island of Niue, who they once played in the Commonwealth Games in 2002, in the Bowl quarter-finals in the Gold Coast, Australia.

Scotland lost 24-5 to England, despite James Eddie having opened the scoring, but looked to be on track for a famous win over Wales with a two-try lead claimed through scores from Scott Riddell and the Perthshire flyer James Fleming. However, a harsh sin-binning for Andrew Turnbull aided the Wales comeback and, after more than two minutes of injury-time, Richie Pugh touched down to steal the victory for the Welsh.

The Scots almost came a cropper again in their final tie against Tonga when, with Turnbull and Peter Horne scoring and Colin Gregor converting both, they ended up clinging on to their 14-12 lead only after Tonga failed to convert both of Vasea Poteki’s tries in another comeback.

Shiel said: “It’s obviously disappointing, but I’ve seen a lot of growth in the team today and they’ve dealt with the quick turn-around between games very well.

“England was always going to be a difficult task because they are a very good team and have quality throughout their squad. We played well in the first half and James scored a very good try. However, we lost our handle on the game when we leaked a try just before half-time. England dominated the territory and possession in the second half and we couldn’t contain them. We played well against Wales and controlled the territory and possession much better, but we didn’t close the game down when we were 12 points up. We scored two good tries but in the closing stages we weren’t sharp enough, which was very frustrating.

“Scott Riddell’s opening try was an excellent team effort, with the support play we have been working on in training really standing out. Tomorrow’s opening game against Niue will be a big challenge, but we bounced back against Tonga and learned from our experiences. We need to keep doing this going into day two and keep improving as we get more games under our belt.

“Niue will be a similar game to Tonga, whereby they will be very confrontational. However, if we control the possession and territory well we can get the upper hand and hopefully win the game.”