UNBEATEN SCOTS SEVEN GUARANTEE CUP QUARTER-FINAL SLOT
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Date Posted: 19-Mar-05

Scotland have qualified for the Cup competition at the IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens 2005 in Hong Kong with a 12-7 win over Tonga. The victory takes Scotland to four wins from four in the pool matches with one game to go – a clash with the mighty All Blacks this evening.

Yesterday, the Scots finished off a winning day, scoring over 100 points, with a comfortable 33-15 win over Korea, adding to a 36-14 victory over the USA and a 33-14 triumph over Celtic cousins Ireland in the morning.

Tonight’s match against New Zealand is the pool decider to see who will face the runners up from pool B in the knock-out stages tomorrow (Sunday 20 March). In that pool, group favourites England were beaten by France last night, throwing the whole pool open.

Scotland Sevens coach Rob Moffat is keen to focus on the task in front – the pool decider against New Zealand – and take tomorrow as it comes. He said: “We have to focus on New Zealand. The thing that is going through my mind right now is the team we will select for that game.

“We have to use the squad of 12 players properly – we’ve got some guys who have played a lot in the four matches so far and others who have played less. We’ll try to even it up because we’ve still got matches tomorrow, no matter how we look at it,” he added.

It was clear that this afternoon’s encounter with Tonga was a crucial match in Scotland’s bid for Hong Kong success and a specific game plan was required to avoid confrontation with the physical islanders.

That plan looked good for the Scots in the first half as the ball was moved around to avoid contact situations. However, in sevens contact comes as a point of course and it was from a ruck that the first score came.

Winger Andrew Turnbull gathered the ball from the back of the breakdown and shipped it wide to scrum-half Jamie Blackwood. The half-back fed Kelly Brown who was taken down five metres from the touchline. Cleverly, Mark Lee recycled the ball and took it up the narrow side, running unchallenged to the line. He had a bit of work to do to get the ball as close to the up-rights as possible – helping stand-off Clark Laidlaw convert.

Tonga returned the restart and after a period of consistent possession, as predicted, they forced the contact. Captain David Gray was quick to steal the unprotected ball. He charged up field, finding Lee in support who fed Turnbull. The nimble winger danced back inside and crossed, bagging his seventh try of the tournament.

Tonga came on the attack in the dying minute of the first half but some solid defence from Scotland, with cracking tackles from Blackwood, Turnbull and a definite try saver from Lee, kept the islanders out.

The second half didn’t go quite to Scotland’s plan as Moffat indicated and the style was lost slightly. The pace and physicality of the first half had taken its toll and both sides had to dig deep in an effort to finish the stronger.

Eventually Tonga’s pressure paid off and substitute Kiniconi Bakewa charged up the touchline to score under the posts. Teevita Tu’ifua’s conversion meant that Scotland would lose the game if Tonga scored another unanswered converted try.

An error from the restart gave Tonga possession and the advantage and with hearts in mouths Scotland watched as referee Nigel Owen indicated a scrum five metres from the Scots’ line. However, as he did so the hooter sounded to end the game and, to the strong support’s delight, Owen blew for full time instead giving Scotland victory.

Moffat said: “It was obviously a crucial win and it was tighter than we thought it should have been. We started very well, scoring a couple of tries, playing the game we wanted to play against the Tongans.

“We then defended well going into half time but I thought in the second half Tonga were there to put away but we took too much contact and lost our style. However, a win is a win and we have qualified for the quarter finals of the Cup so we are very pleased,” he added.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)

SCOTLAND: Mark Lee (The Army), David Gray (Gala) CAPTAIN, Kelly Brown (The Borders), Jamie Blackwood (Watsonians), Clark Laidlaw (Jed-Forest), Roland Reid (London Irish), Andrew Turnbull (The Borders)
Substitutes: Alasdair Strokosch (Edinburgh Rugby), Oli Brown (Boroughmuir), Kenny Sinclair (Glasgow Hawks), Colin Gregor (Watsonians), Calum MacRae (The Borders)

Scotland have won the toss for jerseys against New Zealand, meaning they will play in the familiar navy blue shirts with the All Blacks having to wear white.

This article was posted on 19-Mar-2005, 09:15 by Hugh Barrow.