Rugby World Cup 7's

KevIRL

Thrills and spills in Hong Kong

18 MARCH 2005



While many of the popular pre-tournament top eight selections, including New Zealand, Fiji and Argentina, came through unscathed there were also plenty of surprise results here on day one of the Rugby Word Cup Sevens 2005 in Hong Kong Stadium.

On a marvellous day of Sevens rugby Korea, France, Japan, Tunisia, and Russia all recorded unexpected wins in their respective pools to keep the Hong Kong Stadium crowd on their feet.

Importantly, those upsets may also influence the overall standings at the completion of the pool matches as teams jockey for quarter final positions on day two.

New Zealand and Scotland impress in Pool A

New Zealand had kicked off the defence of their RWC Sevens crown in impressive fashion by scoring 15 tries and conceding only one in their opening two games, but were no doubt relieved to scrape past Tonga 19-12 in the final game of the day.

The Tongans had deservedly led 12-7 going into the second half after a spirited display before tries by Josh Blackie and Orene Ai'i spared New Zealand's blushes and maintained their unbeaten record in Pool A.

Scotland also ended the day unbeaten after comfortable victories over the USA, Ireland and Korea - although they did have to come from 14-0 down in their opening game against the Eagles - with Andy Turnbull their most impressive player.

Korea caused the upset of the Pool with their surprise defeat of Tonga in their second match, when they survived a fight-back by the powerful Pacific Islanders to allow Yong Hwan-Myung to score the winning try.

This was a setback for Tonga, who had started brightly and proved too powerful for the USA in their opening match, scoring five tries and also having two players sent to the sin-bin in the 31-10 victory.

Ireland ended the day without a victory after two tries apiece by David Fee and Mike Palefau gave the USA their first win of RWC Sevens 2005, although Irishman Andrew Maxwell was the first player to score a try against New Zealand.

France, Samoa and England in Pool B tussle

France caused one of the upsets of RWC Sevens 2005 with a 28-17 defeat of England in the penultimate match of the day, Jerome Naves scoring two of their four tries to ensure it was they, and not the inaugural RWC Sevens champions, that ended the day unbeaten.

The French, coached by Thierry Janeczek, thoroughly deserved the victory and had earlier looked lively against Chinese Taipei and Georgia, scoring a flurry of tries to overcome the spirited challenges of both teams 40-7 and 31-5 respectively.

Samoa are the other unbeaten team in the Pool, the Pacific Islanders having recovered from a slow start against Italy to gradually find their fluency as the day progressed and produced convincing 35-0 and 36-7 victories against Chinese Taipei and Georgia.

England, who are bidding to become the first nation to hold both Rugby World Cups at the same time, had looked impressive in their opening two games, scoring 14 unanswered tries against Georgia and Italy, half of them by speedsters Ugo Monye and Richard Haughton.

However, after their nervy performance against France, England have it all to do on the second day and must beat both Samoa and Chinese Taipei if they are to maintain their record of having reached the Cup quarter-finals in each of the previous RWC Sevens.

Chinese Taipei though will be buoyed by their first ever RWC Sevens victory, which came at the 14th attempt with a 28-14 defeat of Italy in an entertaining end-to-end match with Tung Yuan-Hsiang the hero with three of their four tries.

I'm very pleased with the way the players have come together because there are some very strong sides here
Fiji captain Waisale Serevi

Fiji and Australia top class in Pool C

Front-runners Fiji, spearheaded by the evergreen Waisale Serevi and Marika Vunibaka, and Australia surprised few with outstanding displays of running rugby in their three pool matches, setting up a mouth-watering showdown in their final pool match on day two.

However, Australia's chances suffered a late blow with a potential tournament-ending shoulder injury to fleet-footed Nick Reily against Japan. Reily had earlier posted a hat-trick in his side's 31-7 win over Portugal.

Japan bounced back from a 47-0 defeat by Fiji to pull off one of the surprises of the tournament, defeating Canada 19-7.

This was a real setback for Canada after getting their tournament off to a dream start with a 41-0 win over Hong Kong with Marco di Girolamo scoring a hat-trick.

With one win and two losses each, Japan and Canada need good wins on day two to challenge for a Cup quarter-finals berth.

Hong Kong and Portugal put in spirited displays throughout the day but were unable to trouble their faster and more physical opponents.

Pool D wide open

Argentina remain the only undefeated team in Pool D after good wins over Russia, Tunisia and Kenya, Francisco Bosch starring for Argentina in game one with four tries.

Pool D produced some of the surprise packages of the tournament with both Tunisia, in their first-ever RWC Sevens, and Russia upsetting their more fancied opponents in South Africa and Kenya respectively.

South Africa bounced back with strong wins over Uruguay and Russia to sit second in the table in Pool D, while Kenya, who defeated Uruguay first up, ended a disappointing day going down to Argentina 36-7.

Tunisia are equal second in the Pool and could secure a shock Cup quarter-final berth if they can carry today's form into day two.

Expect the on and off-field action in Hong Kong Stadium to step up a notch or two tomorrow as this remarkable tournament enters into its business phase and the quarter-final places come up for grabs.