Much to the disappointment of fans, the national men’s 7s team settled for silver medal in Birmingham, losing to South Africa 31-7.
Hopes were high that the Ben Gollings side was going to end our losing drought in the Commonwealth Games 7s, but the jinx continued to haunt us.
Fiji beat defending champions, NZ, who ended the match with five players, but failed to deliver against an inspired South African outfit that was hungry for victory.
After the loss in Birmingham, the 7s side marched into camp in preparation for the Los Angeles 7s tournament at the end of the month.
Fiji has yet to win in Los Angeles. Last year, the side lost to South Africa in extra time. As we build-up to the Los Angeles 7s tournament at Dignity Health Sports Park, it’s important to take a look at the three 7s tournaments that the national side won in the USA.
Superb performance as Fijians defeat Samoa
The 2007 USA 7s was held on February 10 and 11 at Petco Park in San Diego, California. American ref Dana Teagarden became the first woman to referee a senior-level men’s international in any version of rugby union when she officiated the France-Chile match. The San Diego 7s tournament was noted for the large festival that took place. It included a waterslide, a beer garden, food courts, skills area, face painting, cigar tents, concerts and a world-class coaches’ symposium. Prizes, big and small, were added attractions. It was intended to be not only a rugby event, but a big fun party and the idea was to lure people to the event for the festival and get them interested in rugby union. Fiji produced a superb performance to defeat fellow islanders Samoa 38-24 in the final. Semisi Naevo and William Ryder were once again particularly impressive as the Fijians avenged the previous week’s defeat to the Samoans in Wellington (17-14). Ryder grabbed two first-half tries as Nasoni Roko and Etonia Naba crossed the line to help Waisale Serevi’s side to a 26-7 lead at the break. Timoteo Iosua and Jerry Meafou scored tries for the Samoans as they threatened to fight back, but tries by Semisi Naevo and Lepani Nabuliwaqa took the Fijians to the final score of 38-24. Fiji had won its first tournament in the USA much to fans’ delight. In pool play, Fiji walloped Scotland 57-5, West Indies 55-7 and Argentina 19-5. The side narrowly beat South Africa 26-21 in the quarter-final and the All Blacks 7s 19-10 in the semi-final. In the other quarter-finals, the All Blacks 7s beat England 19-7, France pipped Australia and Samoa thrashed Scotland 34-0. After the fourth leg, Fiji and the All Blacks 7s were tied at the top of the points table with 60 points, followed by South Africa (56 points) and Samoa (48 points). The All Blacks 7s won the overall series.
Fiji beats NZ to win 2015 Las Vegas 7s tournament
Fiji won the Las Vegas 7s tournament, which took place from February 13-15 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Nevada, boosting their hopes of automatic qualification for the 2016 Olympics by beating the All Blacks 7s 35-19 in the final. Heading into the Las Vegas leg of the HSBC WRSS it was clear that quality of play and the pool draws were aligned to set the stage for an incredible tournament. Even with elevated expectations in mind, the tournament was breathtaking and lived up to all expectations and more. The final match of the day trotted out two of the best nations in the history of rugby 7s – Fiji and the All Blacks 7s. There was a buzz in the air for Fiji starting with the win over the All Blacks 7s in pool play 14-12 on day two. It was reminiscent of Samoa’s run to the title in 2010. The Fijian support was strong and the team was executing on all cylinders. The confidence gained from the day two win and backed by the roars of the crowd spurred the Fijians to a 21-0 lead at the break. Fiji reached 28 points before the All Blacks 7s crossed for a score. A bit like the French match, Fiji’s big lead was trimmed towards the end, but the Flying Fijians never surrendered the lead. In pool play apart from beating the All Blacks 7s, Fiji thrashed Samoa 36-0 and fought to the end to beat Wales 28-24. Fiji outclassed France 31-12 in the quarter-final and South Africa 24-19 in the semi-final. The All Blacks 7s beat USA 26-12 in the other semi.
Stirring comeback seals emotional 2016 USA 7s win
“This is for the people of Fiji.” Those were the words of Vodafone Fiji 7s coach Ben Ryan and captain Osea Kolinisau after Fiji made a memorable comeback in the second half to beat Australia in the 2016 Las Vegas 7s Cup Final 21-15. Two tries from Kitione Taliga and a last-minute try from Savenaca Rawaca broke the hearts of the Australians. Ben Ryan said the players had worked hard despite having only ten players available in the final – Amenoni Nasilasila and Isake Katonibau were down with fl u. Osea Kolinisau was the player of the final while Jasa Veremalua and Jerry Tuwai made the Las Vegas Dream Team and after the completion of the tournament, Fiji led the HSBC WRSS overall standings with 91 points. South Africa was in second place with 86 points. The All Blacks 7s were third with 82 points while Australia was fourth with 73 points. The talk around the tanoa was the way the reigning HSBC WRSS champions fought back from a 0-15 half-time deficit with a scintillating display of counter-attacking rugby to beat Australia 21-15 in the final. Their second tournament win of the season sent Fiji clear at the top of the HSBC WRSS standings and was a timely boost for the Pacific Island nation, where Tropical Cyclone Winston left at least 42 people dead and more than 62,000 homeless. On a blustery day at Sam Boyd Stadium, Australia dominated territorially right from the start and Sam Myers capped off a wave of attacks as he crossed the line from the left to put his team in front. Fiji was left short-handed after a dangerous tip tackle and the Wallabies took full advantage as Ed Jenkins powered down the left wing to score and then Cameron Clark cut through to follow suit to establish a half-time lead of 15-0. Playing into the wind, the Fijians finally put points on the board when Kitione Taliga, off the bench, ran the entire length of the field to score under the posts. As the Fijians built much-needed momentum, Taliga scored again after another brilliant counter-attack to reduce the deficit to 15-14. Australia seemed set for another score soon after, but Wallabies fl y-half Quade Cooper lost possession just short of the try line and Fiji was once again ruthless on the counter attack as Savenaca Rawaca stormed down the right to make it 21-15. Fiji earlier overcame USA 21-14 in the first semi-final before Australia beat three-times USA 7s champions South Africa 14-12 in a see-sawing encounter. South Africa, who paid a steep price for some dirty play against Australia in the last four, outclassed USA 21-10 in the third-place playoff. In pool play, Fiji lost to Samoa 28-24, but beat France 42-12 and Argentina 15-12. In the quarter-final, Fiji thrashed Japan 43-7.
South Africa’s incredible comeback in Los Angeles
Last year, South Africa fought back from 0-19 down to beat Fiji 29-24 in extra time to win the final of the Los Angeles 7s. In an incredible contest between two of 7s powerhouses, Fiji looked set to be cruising to victory after scoring three sensational firsthalf tries to race to a 19-point lead. Stedman Gans pulled a try back just before half-time. Selvyn Davids had the chance to make it a five-point game when he scored shortly into the second half. However, he missed the conversion and South Africa had it all to do when Jerry Tuwai reached over to extend Fiji’s lead. Powell decided to turn to his veterans as he brought on Chris Dry who made an immediate impact as he powered over the line. Branco du Preez then came on, replacing Davids after he missed the conversion to Dry’s try. South Africa won possession back from the kick-off and Preez scored after the hooter to give himself the chance of taking the game into extra time. He showed his experience to nail the conversion, making it 24-24. Two youngsters combined to win the game for South Africa. Kurt-Lee Arendse carried the ball forward before offloading to Sako Makata, who shrugged off the attention of a Fijian to score. Fiji’s route to the final saw them overpower England 26-5 in the quarterfinal, before running riot against Australia with a seven-try, 43-7 victory in the semi-final, much to the delight of a large contingent of Fijian fans at Dignity Health Sports Park. In pool play, Fiji beat South Korea 45-7, France 33-28 and Argentina 38-14. These memories got to inspire our 7s warriors!
- RAJNESH LINGAM is a regular contributor to The Fiji Times. The views expressed are the author’s and do not reflect the views of this newspaper.
