Historic day for Samoa as they take Oceania 7s crown Misioka Timoteo scored a hat-trick of tries as Samoa upped the intensity of their game to defeat hosts Fiji 31-17 and win their fourth Oceania 7s title in Suva on Saturday while the Lepani Botia-led Fiji Barbarians triumphed 19-12 over Argentina in the Fiji Water Centennial International 7s which was being played simultaneously. With a youngish side looking for a good build-up to next week’s IRB Gold Coast 7s, Samoa defeated Cook Islands 48-0 in the semi-finals then inflicted Fiji with their first-ever 7s defeat to Samoa on home soil. Samoa coach Viliamu Punivalu said he wouldn’t let the victory go to his players’ heads, adding, “We’ll enjoy the win today and start worrying about the Gold Coast 7s next week.” “We fly back tomorrow, and meet up with four other players who are training back in Samoa. And from there we head across to Australia.” Timoteo scored two early tries to help Samoa race to a 19-0 lead as Fiji suffered a yellow card in the first few minutes to Ilai Tinai followed unfortunately by halfback Kelepi Namoua breaking his leg. With a vocal crowd urging them on, Fiji fought back to 19-12 before the break, but Samoa continued their near faultless display in the second half to pull away. For Ben Ryan, who takes over as Fiji 7s coach from Alifereti Dere tomorrow, the tournament was also an eye-opener on how rugby is played in the Pacific Islands. “For about three minutes, we weren’t quite on point and Samoa kept the ball for a very long period,” he said. “They scored 19 points in the first four minutes – that was probably the pivotal moment when we had a yellow card.” Defending champions Australia, having fallen to Fiji 31-17 in the semis, finished strongly to take third place with a 49-5 win over the Cook Islands after a brace of tries each from Tom Lucas and Peter Lee. As consolation to the Cooks, they qualify for the 2014 Hong Kong 7s and will be accompanied by American Samoa, who snapped up fifth place with a 29-19 victory over Papua New Guinea. Tiny Tuvalu, with a population of just 9,800, had to settle for the wooden spoon after losing to Solomon Islands 33-0 in the 7th-8th place play-offs. Tuvalu still seemed pleased with their performance, coming from a country that is still growing in rugby. Like American Samoa, they hope their appearance over the two-day event would help promote rugby in their country. And the Solomon Islanders were sufficiently happy to consider sending a team to Fiji next year to play in the local club tournaments to give their players more exposure. For Papua New Guinea, who had also targeted a place in Hong Kong and at next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, their performance proved to be a big disappointment. The union had gone all out to get the players and the expertise needed in order to improve, so losing out early was not well-received by the team. In the Fiji Water Centennial International 7s section, Fiji Barbarians knocked out France 26-0 in the semi-finals as Argentina accounted for Pio Tuwai’s Fiji Warriors 17-12.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:36:28 +0000
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