AB Sevens yet to hit their straps
US had too much speed in semi but third place medal consolation for home side
We don’t want to panic, we’ve played really well this weekend. Clark Laidlaw NZ Men’s Sevens coach
New Zealand made up for the disappointment of missing out on the final of the HSBC Sevens in Hamilton by claiming third place with a 29-7 bronze medal match win over South Africa on Sunday.
Fiji claimed their second tournament of the series with a 38-0 win over the United States to move to a share of the top of the table with the US, while New Zealand are third, three points behind and 10 points ahead of South Africa with England fifth on 38 points.
South Africa made the early running and penalty pressure in the New Zealand 22m area resulted in Sivime Soyizwapi scoring the opening try.
But, from the restart, South Africa’s kick failed to go 10m and New Zealand pounced to run the ball and, when Dylan Collier fired a perfect pass to Tony Ng Shiu on the left flank, he had too much speed for the Blitzboks.
Just on halftime Tim Mikkelson got through to give New Zealand a 14-7 lead at the break.
Ng Shiu was over again early in the second half after Mikkelson tidied turnover ball for Jona Nareki, Sam Dickson and Mikkelson to combine to give him the chance.
Their cause was helped when Werner Kok was sin-binned for a tackle offence and Joe Ravouvou was given a superb pass from Scott Gregory to cross while Sam Dickson capped the game with a strong run in to score the last try of the game.
New Zealand’s mistakes proved costly in the 17-7semifinal loss to the United States.
The US opened the scoring from a five-metre scrum after a poor pass from Dickson had to be grounded ingoal by Ravouvou and Madison Hughes powered his way on the blindside when the ball emerged.
Building again, the US were looking dangerous before Regan Ware honed in on a long pass to intercept and race 70m, just managing to ground the ball in the tackle after being chased all the way by Carlin Isles.
But in the second half a tip tackle by Vilimoni Koroi resulted in a sinbinning and, from the penalty, Hughes made good ground to set up clean ball which resulted in Steve Tomasin scoring.
In the final stages of the game, Isles came in off his touchline to clear the ball from the base of a ruck but instead of passing out, he ran the blindside and had too much speed to get across for the winning try.
Laidlaw said the loss was both frustrating and disappointing and the way the All Blacks Sevens had played wasn’t what they were hoping for.
The United States were in their third straight final, they were a hugely balanced team with power and some playmakers with real speed on the outside with Isles and they had a huge amount of experience with the ability to dominate key areas of the game at kickoffs and breakdowns.
“If you don’t match them there, then they are going to roll most teams.
“We don’t want to panic, we’ve played really well this weekend. We played well in the quarter-final, and played well yesterday and played well in the first two tournaments.
“I think we’re on the right track. Losing semifinals is always difficult.
“The World Series is going to be really tight, I think we all can see that so every point counts,” he said.
New Zealand put paid to Australia’s chances in their quarter-final with a 24-17 win, Australia finishing strongly with two late tries, but it was too little, too late.
It was confirmed then that cocaptain Scott Curry was out for the remainder of the tournament and for the Sydney tournament this weekend after rolling his ankle.
Australia came into the tournament wanting to be better at the end of the games and would take satisfaction in the tries scored by Lewis Holland and Josh Coward.