SCOTS KNOCKED OUT OF LONDON CUP
Posted: 27/May/07
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Wales 7s 15, Scotland 7s 5
Scotland failed to reach their first ever Cup semi-final today as they lost out in their fourth consecutive Cup quarter-final of the 2006/07 IRB Sevens World Series.

After the game, head coach Stephen Gemmell said: “I’m disappointed, the boys are disappointed and I think we’ve really let ourselves down.

“Credit to Wales, they did what they needed to do, but I would say that we contributed more to our downfall than Wales did.

“We spoke at length last night and again today about how we needed to play and how we needed to react to cut out any forced errors. We talked about how, if we went through the phases, the spaces would open up and when we did that, we looked dangerous. We just couldn’t do it for sustained periods of time.”

Despite a poor kick-off, Scotland threatened the Welsh defence as Mike Adamson burst up the flank, offloading to Ben Cairns who knocked-on.

Moments later, Cairns went into contact with Wales captain Jonathan Edwards who was unable to surface from the impact.

Scotland took a quick tap and sent Colin Shaw in at the corner, his effort being held up.

From a Scottish lineout, Adamson took the ball into contact and spilled. Dafydd Hewitt scooped the ball up and offloaded to Jonny Vaughton who outpaced Colin Gregor to cross.

Rhodri McAtee claimed Wales’s second score as Tal Selley handed of numerous blue jerseys to give McAtee enough space to go over.

After a minute of play in the second half, Scott Forrest soaked in a defender to give Colin Shaw a one-on-one. With a powerful hand-off and a great turn of pace, Shaw claimed Scotland’s only try. Adamson missed the conversion.

With the last minute ticking away, Scotland found themselves with Shaw out wide and the ball eventually made it’s way to him. As he was put under pressure, a spin pass behind his body found Welsh hands. Wales kept possession to claim their third score and Vaughton’s second.

Scotland 7s will now face Australia 7s in the Plate semi-final (kick-off 3:34pm).

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This article was posted on 27-May-2007, 13:15 by Hugh Barrow.