THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS

Scottish sevens team face hosts South Africa in quarter-finals
ALAN LORIMER
SCOTLAND have qualified for their seventh successive Cup quarter-finals in the IRB World Sevens Series after finishing second in their group at the South Africa Sevens in George yesterday.

The Scots again upset the seedings by defeating second-ranked Australia 21-10 in their second game after losing their opening tie to group top seeds, Samoa, 38-7 in a disappointing first game.

"We struggled against Samoa. The guys seemed to go into their shell but full credit to them, after an open and honest soul-searching session, they fronted up against Australia," said Scotland sevens coach Steve Gemmell.

He added: "Beating Australia was great for us considering they had Super 14 players in their side."

Former Bell-Baxter High School flanker Chris Fusaro, again in impressive form, opened the scoring against Australia, the other touchdowns coming from Richie Vernon and Colin Gregor, who converted all three scores.

Scotland then had to face Tunisia who had drawn with Australia and who had shown themselves to be a powerful seven in Dubai last weekend.

In the event, Scotland produced a winning performance with tries from Ruaridh Jackson, and two from Gregor who again converted all three tries giving the Glasgow stand-off a 100 per cent kicking record and an overall points tally of 29.

Scotland will face South Africa in the quarter finals today in what will be a testing tie against a quality team. But having reached the Cup quarter finals in both George and Dubai, the Scots will now be guaranteed a place in the top eight seeds for the next two tournaments taking place in San Diego and Wellington.

Scotland Sevens squad: Scott Forrest (Ayr) captain, Calum Forrester (GHA), Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors), Scott Newlands (Edinburgh), Chris Fusaro (Heriot's), Stephen McColl (Dunfermline), Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Chris Kinloch (Edinburgh Academicals), James Thompson (Heriot's), Andrew Dymock (Dundee HSFP), Grant Anderson (Ayr), Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Hawks).

SCOTLAND'S RESULTS
Samoa 38, Scotland 7; Scotland 21, Australia 10; Scotland 21, Tunisia 14.

QUARTER-FINALS LINE-UP (kick-off times GMT)

New Zealand v USA (9.42am)

Samoa v Argentina (10.04am)

South Africa v Scotland (10.26am)

Fiji v Kenya (10.48am)

This article was posted on 8-Dec-2007, 08:14 by Hugh Barrow.