Scotland 7s have met their initial objective of making it to the cup quarter-finals of the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens (30 March – 1 April) following a 31-7 win over Portugal yesterday and a 53-21 victory over Sri Lanka today.

Despite a 26-0 loss to the prolific Fijians in their final pool match, the other results at the world famous event have gone Scotland’s way and permitted entry to the top eight on day three, along with top runners up Tonga.

It’s a case of the familiar for coach Stephen Gemmell and his young squad as they have been draw against Fiji in the quarter-finals. Fiji finished top of the seeding pile so in recognition they are drawn against the lowest runner-up, Scotland.

Tonga racked up a points difference of +39 over Scotland’s +30 while the USA narrowly missed out at +17 and England’s 19-14 win over Argentina was enough to deny the South American’s progression to the cup with an overall +12 difference of points.

Gemmell said: “We deserve to be in the cup and we’ll do our best tomorrow. We knew before we came that it’s different to other tournament and that we had to score points to give ourselves the best chance. At the same time we knew we couldn’t leak too many either.

“Qualifying is a big achievement for this young squad. We know what’s coming tomorrow but we’ll do a bit more analysis on the game against Fiji tonight. We’ve got nothing to lose so I’d like the boys to express themselves and do their best.

“We’ve qualified for the quarter-finals at the last two tournaments we’ve played so we know we’re making steps forward. It’s a massive achievement for us and for Scottish rugby with this young squad,” he added.

Scotland 7s take on Fiji at 1.20pm (local time, +8 hours) tomorrow (1 April) at the Hong Kong Stadium.

Scotland 7s squad for the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens (30 March – 1 April and Adelaide Sevens (7-8 April)
Michael Adamson (Glasgow Warriors and Glasgow Hawks), Ben Addison* (Glasgow Warriors, Stirling County & West of Scotland Institute of Sport), Callum Anderson* (Border Reivers, Melrose & East of Scotland Institute of Sport), Sean Crombie* (Border Reivers, Aberdeen Grammar Rugby & Grampian Institute of Sport), Simon Cross (Edinburgh Rugby), Max Evans (Glasgow Warriors and Glasgow Hawks), Scott Forrest* (Border Reivers & Hawick), Roddy Grant* (Border Reivers, Gala & East of Scotland Institute of Sport), Graham Hogg* (Border Reivers, Hawick & East of Scotland Institute of Sport), Jamie Hunter* (Glasgow Warriors, Hillhead/Jordanhill & West of Scotland Institute of Sport), Ross Rennie (Edinburgh Rugby), Colin White* (Glasgow Warriors, Ayr & West of Scotland Institute of Sport)

This article was posted on 31-Mar-2007, 17:38 by Hugh Barrow.