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Sunday, December 03, 2006
South Africa rallied from 12-0 down at halftime to crush New Zealand 31-12 in the final of the rugby Dubai Sevens after New Zealand routed Canada 31-0 in heavy rain earlier Saturday. Canada was in the quarter-finals of an IRB Sevens rugby tournament for the first time since 2004. The Canadians lost to France 36-0, again under tough weather conditions, in a Plate semifinal later Saturday.
"It seems we struggle against New Zealand in the quarter-finals, much like the Commonwealth Games where we also faced them," Canadian coach Shane Thompson said. "It is almost like we have to learn how to take our game and intensity to the level they seem to play at on day two."
The Canadians had just as much trouble with France.
"You run into games like that where bounces go the other way and things really went well for France," Canadian manager Doug Tate said. "The game was full of deflected balls into guys' hands going at full speed and little chip kicks that stopped dead in the mud.
"The team was given a chance to play against the top teams, which is the only way you can move to that level. We have lots of work to do on defensive structure and eliminating little mistakes that at this level are turned into points."
Added Thompson: "A disappointing day but we came out healthy and the new players were given a good introduction to how fast it is played on the circuit.
"We can't duplicate this at home and they will be better for it."
Five unanswered second-half tries propelled South Africa to victory in the sevens world series opener, and a chance at George next weekend to win its home tournament for the first time and steal a clear early lead in the standings.
"When we got this squad together I said that we were going into these opening two events to win," South Africa coach Paul Treu said. "I think in the past we were perhaps happy with third but that changed for these events this year, and now we go home to George."
New Zealand, Dubai champs from 1999-2002, started better at the muddy Exiles club, with Edwin Cocker and captain Nigel Hunt crossing for a 12-0 lead by the break.
Treu then introduced Thobela Mdaka, and he scored only 27 seconds from the restart. Captain Kabamba Floors was over next, and his turnover set up Mdaka's second try for the lead.
Danwell Demas raced in, and the try scoring was capped by Stefan Basson, who was named player of the tournament.
"At halftime, Paul just told us to believe that we could do it, and we did," Basson said.
After dominating the first six world series then not even making a final last season, New Zealand was relieved to start the new series well.
"The fact that we're disappointed to lose a final speaks volumes after last year," coach Gordon Tietjens said. "The boys played really well in difficult conditions in the first half but South Africa then kept hold of possession and you can't win this game without the ball."
New Zealand eliminated world champion Fiji 17-12 in the semifinals, where South Africa dispatched two-time defending Dubai champ England 17-0.
Samoa, ousted 19-10 in the quarter-finals by South Africa, ended up winning the plate, downing France 26-7.
Argentina, which didn't win a pool match on Friday, rebounded with three victories to claim the bowl from Zimbabwe 26-7. Santiago Gomez Cora's four tries in the tournament gave him 146 and the all-time series record.
Wales, which failed only on points differential from reaching the quarter-finals, took home the shield.
"It seems we struggle against New Zealand in the quarter-finals, much like the Commonwealth Games where we also faced them," Canadian coach Shane Thompson said. "It is almost like we have to learn how to take our game and intensity to the level they seem to play at on day two."
The Canadians had just as much trouble with France.
"You run into games like that where bounces go the other way and things really went well for France," Canadian manager Doug Tate said. "The game was full of deflected balls into guys' hands going at full speed and little chip kicks that stopped dead in the mud.
"The team was given a chance to play against the top teams, which is the only way you can move to that level. We have lots of work to do on defensive structure and eliminating little mistakes that at this level are turned into points."
Added Thompson: "A disappointing day but we came out healthy and the new players were given a good introduction to how fast it is played on the circuit.
"We can't duplicate this at home and they will be better for it."
Five unanswered second-half tries propelled South Africa to victory in the sevens world series opener, and a chance at George next weekend to win its home tournament for the first time and steal a clear early lead in the standings.
"When we got this squad together I said that we were going into these opening two events to win," South Africa coach Paul Treu said. "I think in the past we were perhaps happy with third but that changed for these events this year, and now we go home to George."
New Zealand, Dubai champs from 1999-2002, started better at the muddy Exiles club, with Edwin Cocker and captain Nigel Hunt crossing for a 12-0 lead by the break.
Treu then introduced Thobela Mdaka, and he scored only 27 seconds from the restart. Captain Kabamba Floors was over next, and his turnover set up Mdaka's second try for the lead.
Danwell Demas raced in, and the try scoring was capped by Stefan Basson, who was named player of the tournament.
"At halftime, Paul just told us to believe that we could do it, and we did," Basson said.
After dominating the first six world series then not even making a final last season, New Zealand was relieved to start the new series well.
"The fact that we're disappointed to lose a final speaks volumes after last year," coach Gordon Tietjens said. "The boys played really well in difficult conditions in the first half but South Africa then kept hold of possession and you can't win this game without the ball."
New Zealand eliminated world champion Fiji 17-12 in the semifinals, where South Africa dispatched two-time defending Dubai champ England 17-0.
Samoa, ousted 19-10 in the quarter-finals by South Africa, ended up winning the plate, downing France 26-7.
Argentina, which didn't win a pool match on Friday, rebounded with three victories to claim the bowl from Zimbabwe 26-7. Santiago Gomez Cora's four tries in the tournament gave him 146 and the all-time series record.
Wales, which failed only on points differential from reaching the quarter-finals, took home the shield.
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By Brenden Nel, PA Sport, George
New Zealand gained revenge for their Dubai Sevens loss last week when they defeated South Africa in front of their home crowd 24-17 in a pulsating Emirates Airline George Sevens final at Outeniqua Park.
The Springboks were the masters of their own demise as they made a plethora of handling errors at crucial times and fluffed a number of chances despite enjoying most of the possession in the final.
The Boks flew out of the blocks, spurred on by a partisan 14,000 crowd, and were immediately rewarded when Dusty Noble found a gap, sending the ball wide for a galloping Schalk van der Merwe to score in the corner.
New Zealand hit back almost immediately when Alfred Pelenise handed off Ryno Benjamin to level the score but Nigel Hunt was unable to put them into the lead with the conversion.
Hunt eventually broke the deadlock on the half-time whistle by beating Van der Merwe with pace to give the All Blacks a 10-5 lead at the break.
Zar Lawrence extended that further within a minute of the restarts as New Zealand pulled 17-5 ahead after some poor tackling by the Springboks.
The Boks brought on leading try scorer Phillip Burger, who scored almost immediately as he combined with Stefan Basson on a blindside move.
The Boks own handling mistakes were to cost them dearly again when they conceded a scrum in their own 22-metre area and Pelenise ran around to score.
Van der Merwe managed to break two tackles to bring the Boks back to seven behind with less than a minute to go but New Zealand held out to win the tournament to the disappointment of the crowd.
Earlier, Mike Friday's reign as England Sevens coach ended earlier than he would have liked as his team bowed out in the semi-finals in a tense 10-7 loss to South Africa.
The England team were booed at stages and clearly were not the favourites of the home crowd but did put up a better performance than in Dubai.
However, Paul Treu's side had the final say, just as they did at the same stage of the competition in Dubai a week ago and ensured a repeat final against New Zealand.
Kabamba Floors immediately had the crowd on its feet when Van der Merwe made a monster rip off Charles Amesbury and set the blond flanker on an 80-metre run.
England struck back on the five-minute mark as they stretched the Boks from side to side until Michael Hills trotted in untouched to level the scores.
Golling kicked a vital conversion from the sideline to put his side ahead by two, a lead they kept into the half-time break.
The second half turned out to be a massively tense affair, with both sides taking too much contact and tempers rising at stages, prompting referee James Jones to talk to both captains to calm their players.
The Boks broke the deadlock as they stretched England to all sides, and finally found a gap where try-scoring machine Burger sped in for what turned out to be the winning try.
There was further tension when Dusty Noble pushed Amesbury outside the field of play and was yellow carded for his efforts.
Down to six men, Floors won a vital penalty at the ruck shortly afterwards to ensure the Boks could simply put the ball out for the victory.
In the other semi-final, New Zealand stunned World Champions Fiji to pull away to a 29-0 lead before their opponents scored two consolation tries to lose 29-12.
In the Plate final, tries by Tal Selly, Martyn Thomas, Rhodri McAtee and Alec Jenkins gave Wales the title as they ended a successful tournament on a high.
Australia won the Bowl 41-7 against a Kenya side who disintegrated as the game went on, while Portugal took the Shield with a 14-12 win over Zimbabwe.