Hosts New Zealand beat South Africa in thrilling Main Cup final
What you need to know:
- Kenya Sevens collected 10 points to scale one place to position eight in the World Rugby Sevens Series standings after their Plate semi-final performance in Wellington on Sunday.
- Kenya had beaten Canada and Portugal 37-7 and 26-5, respectively to reach the Cup quarters in Wellington, despite going down to Australia 12-17 in their last Pool “D” outing on Saturday.
Kenya Sevens collected 10 points to scale one place to position eight in the World Rugby Sevens Series standings after their Plate semi-final performance in Wellington on Sunday.
The team, which finished fourth at the previous leg of Cape Town Sevens, slumped to the Plate semi-finals after losing 0-36 to New Zealand in the Cup quarter-finals.
Andrew Amonde’s side would concede a 14-35 Plate semi-final defeat to Argentina. They reached the same stage last season.
In the Cape Town Sevens, Kenya lost 26-28 to France in the third place play-off to collect 15 points. The team picked five points from the opening leg in Dubai where they lost 7-33 to the France in Bowl semis.
Kenya had beaten Canada and Portugal 37-7 and 26-5, respectively to reach the Cup quarters in Wellington, despite going down to Australia 12-17 in their last Pool “D” outing on Saturday.
New Zealand went on to retain Wellington title after they rallied from behind at 7-21 to beat South Africa 24-21 in a thrilling final.
The All Blacks defeated England 25-5 while South Africa eased past Fiji 31-1 in the semis. Fiji would then humble England 24-12 in the play-off for third place.
OPENED TWO-POINT LEAD
In spite of the defeat, South Africa opened a two-point lead at the top of the standings. The team has 54 points and Fiji are second with 52.
The Series now moves to Australia for Sydney Sevens this weekend. Kenya 7s team has been handed a favourable Pool “B” where it face Series leaders South Africa, Wellington Bowl finalists Scotland as well as Russia and Scotland, who are yet to reach any Cup quarters this season.
Although Kenya’s performance dropped, the team’s deputy coach Paul Murunga said his charges are gradually improving.
“We are slowly getting our combinations right. We now know which position to field each player,” said Murunga.
Kenya’s record try-scorer Collins Injera showed his grit with two try-saving tackles against Argentina.
before half-time.
His tally moved to 213 tries, seven behind England legend Ben Gollings and 17 behind Argentina’s current head coach Santiago Gomez, who leads as an all-time top scorer with 230 tries.
