Scotland 7s take on the world in the second leg of the HSBC Sevens World series, the Emirates Airline South Africa 7s:
Scotland will face Dubai 7s Plate finalists Australia after a double helping of home nations opposition in the second 2010/11 HSBC Sevens World Series tournament in George, South Africa, which starts today (Friday 10 December 2010). Read on for the latest from George, South Africa.
Day 1: Friday 10 December
Scotland 21-12 France
Wales 19-7 Scotland
Scotland v Australia (kick-off 5.32pm GMT)
GAME TWO: Wales 19-7 Scotland
Scotland 7s lost their first match of the South Africa 7s 19-7 in a close encounter with home nations rivals, Wales.
Despite the unquestionable threat shown by their previous 33-15 defeat of Australia in the opening match Scotland stood up to their opponents in what was ultimately a very tense encounter that went two minutes outside of regulation time.
First-half scores from Richard Pugh and Richard Evans meant that Wales were clearly in the driving seat at the break with Rhys Jones’ single conversion giving them a 12-0 cushion at half time.
HALF TIME: Wales 12-0 Scotland
However the resilience of the Scotland 7s team has been evident on many occasion in recent times and a score from Ross Samson (converted by Skeen) put the Welshmen under clear pressure as the minutes wore on deep into added time (12-7).
However it was Wales' Tom Isaacs who got the crucial score after nine minutes of play to win the game.
Replacement kicker Gareth Davies slotted the conversion to put Wales through to the cup quarter finals with Scotland facing a Pool A showdown with Australia to determine the second cup knockout qualifier.
FULL-TIME: Wales 19-7 Scotland
 
GAME ONE: Scotland 21-12 France
Scotland got their Emirates Airline South Africa 7s campaign off to a good start with an impressive (21-12) win over France.
Having knocked the French out of the Bowl quarter-final in the Dubai 7s last weekend (28-22), the match lived up to its billing as a hard-fought affair, with the sides taking turns to cross for two scores a piece in the first-half.
Michael Fedo opened the scoring after just 43 seconds (converted by Andrew Skeen) to give Scotland the initiative from early on however, little over a minute later, France’s Renaud Delmas bit back, with Terry Bouhraoua’s conversion tying the game, 7-7.
The second exchange of scores were registered by James Fleming (converted by Skeen), to put Scotland back in the lead, and Camille Canivet, whose unconverted try gave Scotland a 14-12 lead at half-time which, coincidently, was the same score at half-time in last weekend’s Bowl quarter-final.
HALF TIME: Scotland 14-12 France
Scotland did well to contain the French in the second-half with the their patience rewarded with a second score from Fleming.
Andrew Skeen's conversion ended the games scoring to see Scotland off to a flyer.
FULL TIME: 21-12

This article was posted on 10-Dec-2010, 16:36 by Hugh Barrow.