New Zealand Men complete sweep in Hamilton

Two tournaments, four titles for New Zealand. After the women celebrated victory over Canada in Hamilton, the men followed suit with a dominant win over France in the Cup Final to make it two straight World Sevens sweeps for the black jerseys. Canada enjoyed an unbeaten tournament only to settle for 5th, with the USA and Argentina following in 6th and 7th respectively.

The final round of the pool stage saw the Canadians defeating Spain but it was France who pushed into the Semi Finals, their points differential slightly better in their win over Ireland. Under the new format Canada then went into the 5th-place Final opposite the USA.

Canada produced arguably their best performance of the season with a 21-nil lead at half via tries from Theo Sauder, Lucas Hammond, and Pat Kay with the latter converting all three. Conversely it was a poor 7 minutes from the USA, but they recovered somewhat in the second half with the final score reading 28-7.

The Eagles had earlier put Wales to the sword by 42-nil in their third pool match. Five players crossed the line with two tries going to Naima Fuala’au. As with the Canadians, however, the frustrating new format left them unable to challenge for a higher position.

It was near identical circumstances for Argentina. After a terrible start on Day One, they turned their form around completely and produced a superb performance to beat Fiji in their first match of Day Two. Kenya put them under huge pressure in the 7th place playoff but Franco Sábato’s try following Felipe Del Mestre’s second saved the game for Los Pumas.

All three Americas core sides are in the top 10 with Canada pushing above Kenya into 9th place. The USA are only four points ahead, with Argentina still the top-ranked of the three at 5th overall, four behind England. New Zealand have built a 15-point cushion at the top of the table.

The World Sevens Series continues next weekend in Sydney.

 

 

POOL STAGE RESULTS

POOL A
Scotland 7 – 24 USA
New Zealand 47 – 0 Wales
Scotland 24 – 19 Wales
New Zealand 26 – 5 USA
USA 42 – 0 Wales
New Zealand 38 – 12 Scotland

POOL B
Kenya 19 – 24 England
South Africa 31 – 5 Japan
Kenya 12 – 12 Japan
South Africa 19 – 21 England
England 26 – 7 Japan
South Africa 14 – 36 Kenya

POOL C
Ireland 21 – 26 Canada
France 21 – 17 Spain
Ireland 28 – 17 Spain
France 12 – 12 Canada
Canada 21 – 14 Spain
France 17 – 7 Ireland

POOL D
Argentina 7 – 38 Australia
Fiji 19 – 12 Samoa
Argentina 40 – 0 Samoa
Fiji 19 – 12 Australia
Australia 33 – 19 Samoa
Fiji 10 – 26 Argentina

 

PLAYOFF RESULTS

CUP SEMI FINALS
England 5 – 10 France
New Zealand 17 – 14 Australia

15th PLACE FINAL
Samoa 21 – 7 Wales

13th PLACE FINAL
Japan 15 – 19 Spain

11th PLACE FINAL
Ireland 19 – 24 Scotland

9th PLACE FINAL
Fiji 12 – 5 South Africa

7th PLACE FINAL
Argentina 19 – 17 Kenya

5th PLACE FINAL
Canada 28 – 7 USA

BRONZE FINAL
England 21 – 33 Australia

CUP FINAL
France 5 – 27 New Zealand