SCOTS LIFT SHIELD TITLE IN WELLINGTON
Saturday, 07 February 2009
The Scotland 7s team lifted the Shield title in Wellington today, beating Canada and Niue en route to the USA Sevens next weekend and the Rugby World Cup in 26 days time.

Scotland 7s’ day two results
Bowl ¼ final, Australia 22 – 12 Scotland
Shield semi-final, Canada 7 – 14 Scotland
Shield final, Niue 0 – 26 Scotland
The Scotland 7s team continued their march to the Rugby World Cup Sevens – which takes place in Dubai from 5-7 March – by winning the Shield title at the NZI New Zealand Sevens in Wellington today.
Although Scotland started encouragingly in their Bowl quarter-final meeting with Australia - by scoring through Richie Vernon and Roland Reid, Colin Gregor converting the second - the Aussies fought back with two tries very late on to seal the win.
As they moved into the Shield competition, Scotland faced Canada, historically one of their bogey sides, and one which they will meet in the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 26 days time.
Andrew Turnbull was first to find the score-sheet, Gregor converting, to give the Scots half-time advantage.
In the second period, Gregor touched down and converted his own score. A late converted try from the Canadians wasn’t enough to deny the Scots a place in the Shield final.
The final of the Shield competition threw up an exciting encounter with Niue who had just beaten Samoa.
Despite Niue posing a significant threat to Scotland’s chances, the Scots recorded a clean sheet in defence whilst scoring four tries.
Andrew Easson crossed the line twice in the first half, Gregor converting the first, to go in 12-0 up at half-time.
Turnbull and Reid were next to touch down, Gregor converting both, to finish the weekend on a high.
At the conclusion of the tournament, Scotland 7s coach, Stephen Gemmell, said: “We were disappointed not to beat Australia in order to progress in the Bowl competition, but it’s encouraging that we’re back in contention for games now.
“We were close in our games yesterday, and we beat Kenya who went onto beat South Africa, so we’re definitely on the upward slope.”
On today’s performances, Gemmell saw further improvement in his side’s execution and looks forward to carrying that into the final IRB Sevens World Series event (USA) before the Rugby World Cup Sevens in March.
“These results give us something to take on into San Diego. No-ones getting carried away with things but it does provide us with some momentum.
“Niue beat Samoa to get to the Shield semi-final and that shows the level of their ability. I feel we played some of our best rugby in the final.
“Next week won’t get any easier though as this weekend we played the winner of the last two tournaments, South Africa, and next weekend, we will be playing the winner of this tournament, England.
“All-in-all, it’s another six games under our belt in the build-up to the Rugby World Cup Sevens.”
The weekend’s action saw a high volume of shock results, with Samoa, historically one of the world’s best sevens sides, failing to win a single game over the two days. Wales also beat World champions New Zealand, the USA beat Fiji and Kenya beat South Africa.
However, to Gemmell, these kind of results so close to a World Cup are not surprising.
“You’ve got to expect that in a World Cup year. It’s probably been the most exciting weekend in the 10 years of the IRB Sevens World Series.
“There are no mismatches anymore with the bigger nations taking on the smaller nations. Everyone has stepped up their game ahead of the World Cup.”
From his own point of view, Gemmell is focussed on Scotland’s task and that is to keep the intensity up going into the half-way point of the eight-leg Series.
“It was good to get some of the professional players coming back in and getting some sevens game-time. Some of them haven’t played sevens for a long time.
“We’ve now generated some momentum and we need to keep it going. Now we’ve really got something to build on.”
Scotland 7s team v Australia: Roland Reid (Edinburgh), Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors), Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Colin Gregor (captain, Glasgow Warriors), Rory Hutton (Hawick)*, Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh)+
Substitutes: Graham Hogg (Hawick)* for Grant, Colin Shaw (Glasgow Warriors) for Reid, Jamie Hunter (West of Scotland)* for Hutton
Scotland 7s team v Canada: Roland Reid (Edinburgh), Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors), Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Colin Gregor (captain, Glasgow Warriors), Andrew Easson (Edinburgh), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh)+
Substitutes: Colin Shaw (Glasgow Warriors) for Reid, Graham Hogg (Hawick)* for Vernon, Marc Teague (Edinburgh) for Turnbull
Scotland 7s team v Niue: Roland Reid (Edinburgh), Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Colin Shaw (Glasgow Warriors), Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Colin Gregor (captain, Glasgow Warriors), Andrew Easson (Edinburgh), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh)+
Substitutes: Jamie Hunter (West of Scotland)* for Easson, Rory Hutton (Hawick)* for Adamson, Marc Teague (Edinburgh) for Turnbull
Scotland 7s squad (sponsor Murray) for the next two tournaments on the IRB Sevens World Series in New Zealand and USA: Colin Gregor (captain, Glasgow Warriors), Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Andrew Easson (Edinburgh), Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Graham Hogg (Hawick)*, Jamie Hunter (West of Scotland)*, Rory Hutton (Hawick)*, Roland Reid (Edinburgh), Scott Riddell (Blaydon)++, Colin Shaw (Glasgow Warriors), Marc Teague (Edinburgh), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh)+, Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors)

This article was posted on 7-Feb-2009, 11:51 by Hugh Barrow.