THE Fiji Airways Fiji 7s team settled in for the ninth position beating Canada 40-17 in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in Dubai yesterday.
This is for the first time in 21 years Fiji has missed out in the Cup quarter-finals.
Two yellow cards in the first half didn’t help their cause, although they still led 12-5 at the break.
The game was still in the balance midway through the second half, but a burst of three quick-fire tries – two of them by Waisea Nacuqu saw Fiji home 40-17.
Spain started the 11th place play-off with Manuel Sainz-Trapaga scoring twice in the opening five minutes, but Ireland hit back through Hugo Lennox.
Sainz-Trapaga was denied a hat-trick score when he was stopped just short, but he found Juan Ramos in support only for Jordan Conroy to go 60 metres to make it 19-14 with 30 seconds to play.
Conroy had a chance to win it, but he fumbled a cross-field kick and Spain heaved a sigh of relief.
Kenya, who had pushed South Africa so hard in their opening game on Thursday, proved too hot for Scotland to handle in the 13th place play-off with Johnstone Olindi and Alvin Otieno among the try-scorers in their 26-14 victory.
Wales also finished on a high with their first victory of the weekend, beating Japan 38-12 in the battle for 15th place with Rio Dyer scoring two of their six tries against the weekend’s invitational team.