Scotland Sevens ended day two of the Wellington Sevens with a win over the Cook Islands, 19-17, which saw them scoop up the Shield silverware.
Unfortunately, the side were unable to keep up the momentum from their previous two tournaments, whereby winning all three matches on day two to win the bowl, after losing their opening game, and the first match of the day, to a speedy Kenya, 14-5.
They will now travel to Las Vegas to compete in the fifth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series next weekend (10-12 February), taking on England, Kenya and Brazil.
 
Head coach, Graham Shiel, said: “It’s been a difficult weekend, I was really proud of how the guys performed yesterday. They put in good performances against New Zealand and Japan.
“The conditions today however were not good for sevens and we just didn’t get started against Kenya. We had very little possession and under-achieved. It was not a nice way to start the day but we paid the price and had to move on.
“Against the United States we put more character into our performance and we improved a bad situation and got the outcome we needed. The Cook Islands again was more difficult and with a few minor knocks we were limited and couldn’t really open the gap between us and them.
“The players are continuing to work very hard and have put in good performances against top eight teams this weekend. They are also willing to make amends for today’s disappointment by refocusing and performing as well as they can in Las Vegas. It’s admirable that they have kept their heads held high after today.”
Having held Kenya in a deadlock for the entirety of the first-half of the first game, some 30 seconds into the second period Kenya put their name on the scoreboard through Sidney Ashioya. Collins Injera then doubled their score soon after. It wasn’t until injury time that the Scots responded with Byron McGuigan adding the consolation. 5-14
Next they faced the United States. Getting off to a much better start within four minutes they had added two scores to their tally, with McGuigan crossing the whitewash again, followed by James Fleming. However, in the second-half their opponents matched their two scores with Roland Suinala scoring twice. It was captain Colin Gregor’s two successful conversions which tipped the balance in the Scots favour. 14-12
Finally, against the Cook Islands the game was evenly matched for the most part. However the Scots opponents had the upper-hand with 15 seconds to go before captain Colin Gregor dived in for his second try of the match and stole the win. His efforts were bolstered by two conversions and a third touchdown from Michael Fedo. 19-17
New Zealand now lead the HSBC Sevens World Series with 73 points having won the Wellington Sevens. They beat Fiji, 24-7 in the Cup final. Fiji are second in the rankings and Scotland currently sit in tenth place. The 12 core teams will compete in three more legs of the circuit before gathering in Glasgow for the inaugural Glasgow7s at Scotsotun Stadium on the Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 May.
Scotland results day two Wellington Sevens:
Scotland 5-14 Kenya
Scotland 14-12 USA
Scotland 19-17 Cook Islands

This article was posted on 4-Feb-2012, 11:30 by Hugh Barrow.