Cape Town win ends sevens drought
All Blacks Sevens coach Clark Laidlaw says a tournament victory has come sooner than he expected.
The team ended a two-year world series tournament victory drought with a sweeping 38-14 win over Argentina in Cape Town yesterday.
Ahead 14-7 at half-time, the New Zealanders ran in four second-half tries to seal the win.
Joe Ravouvou scored a try in each half, with Vilimoni Koroi, Tim Mikkelson and Regan Ware also crossing before Sione Molia wrapped up proceedings deep into added time.
The New Zealanders, who lost to South Africa in last week’s Dubai final, had gone 15 world series tournaments without a win, their last one coming in Vancouver in 2016.
It’s their first win under Laidlaw, and puts them top of the 10-tournament ladder, two points clear of last year’s series winners South Africa. “I’m not sure if we were expecting it — it’s come a bit sooner than we thought. It’s very pleasing,” said Scot Laidlaw, on his team’s progress in the past two weeks.
“We were pretty lucky with the group we’ve got, no brand new players, got a real mix [ of experience], a lot of confidence out of last weekend.”
Laidlaw — appointed just over a year ago to replace the sevens icon Gordon Tietjens — said the win over South Africa was “awesome”.
“There were a few decisions against us which made it quite difficult. They’re not superhuman, it gave us confidence . . . they can be beaten especially here in South Africa.”
Laidlaw told Radio Sport Breakfast that NZ lacked the outright speed of players such as Ameri- can flyer Perry Baker. It was up to the coaches to find ways of compensating “[through] anticipation, reading play and decision-making”. Kiwi skipper Scott Curry said it had been a hugely satisfying performance over both days. “I’m just over the moon really,” he said. “It could have gone either way after we lost the first game against USA, and for the boys to bounce back and play like we did for the rest of the weekend, I’m massively proud. “Day two’s another day, and we talked about starting fresh and really working for each other, and that’s what won us those three games today.” The next tournament is in Sydney at the end of January, a week ahead of the New Zealand leg of the series, to be staged in Hamilton for the first time.