Kiwis retain their Wellington title

SA, Fiji knocked out in semis

Hosts New Zealand retained their title at the Wellington Sevens - Round Three on the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens circuit - when they beat Argentina 31-7 in the Final on Saturday.

And the Kiwis are now sole leaders on the IRB standings - with England (in the quarter-finals) and Fiji (semis), who shared the lead with them before Wellington, having bowed out early.

They now stand eight points ahead of Fiji as the teams move on to Los Angeles. But, just as significantly, with two wins in the last two tournaments, the aura of invincibility has well and truly returned to Gordon Tietjen's men.

"Our forwards were awesome," said the New Zealand coach aftewards, "And our defence was massive, which it needed to be against Argentina. It's special to win it in front of these fans."

Orene Ai'i, Amasio Valence, captain Liam Mesam and Isaia Toeava scored their tries, with Luca Borges providing Argentina's single touchdown.

Santiago Gomez Cora was shown the red card midway through the second half, but, with New Zealand 17-0 up at half-time, it would not have affected the outcome of the match.

The tiny Pacific nation of Niue took the Shield when they beat Japan 29-19 in the Final of that section. The players of the tiny coral island community known for its fishing and gum trees brought huge cheers from the generous crowd, which at 37,500 was roughly 36 times Niue's total population.

Crowd favourites Kenya upstaged Tonga 17-12 in the Bowl Final. With captain Oscar Osir Osula at the heart of much of their good work, Kenya snatched victory deep into stoppage time.

Australia smashed Scotland 27-0 in the Plate Final. Australia coach Eddie Jones, who was watching, said:" It's great. We haven't done too well this season, but the guys played well for this. For these young guys to play in front of 36,000 people can only be good."

Semi-finals:

New Zealand advanced to the Final when they destroyed South Africa 34-12 in one semi-final and the Pumas edged Fiji 21-17 in the other.

Argentina, winners of the Los Angeles Sevens in 2004, have been steadily improving over the last couple of season and their victory over the Fijians are not entirely surprising - even though Fiji were fancied to advance to the Final.

Fiji opened the scoring with a David Batiratu try in the second minute, but Lucio Lopez Fleming scored for the Pumas in the sixth minute. A penalty try a minute later and two conversions by Federico Serra Miras saw the Pumas take a 14-5 lead into the break.

Despite the outstanding Marika Vunibaka being sin-binned in the first minute of the second half, Fiji managed to close the gap with a try by Neumi Nanuku in the second minute.

The Fijians took the lead in the sixth minute with a Nasoni Rokobiau try and a conversion by Nanuku. But in the final minute the Pumas launched a massive attack and Lucio Lopez Fleming scored the winner deep into injury time. Serra Miras made it 21-17 with the conversion.

It was a game of contrasts, with Fiji dominating the possession (59 percent), but the Pumas playing in the Fijian half most of the time - 62 percent overall and 69 percent of the time in the second half.

In the other Cup semi-final South Africa's speedster Fabien Juries was impressive, but Roy Kinikinilau notched another hat-trick of tries to inspire New Zealand to yet another IRB Sevens Cup Final.

Eddie Fredericks opened the scoring in the second minute and Mzwandile Stick's conversion made it 7-0. But Kinikinilau scored the first of his three tries in the second minute. Amasio Valence and Kinikinilau added further tries (with Orene Ai'i kicking just one conversion) to give the Kiwis a 17-7 lead at the break.

When Ai'i scored a try and converted in the third minute after the break the game was all but won. Juries scored a minute later to give his team a glimmer of hope, but Tanerau Latimer and Kinikinilau killed off the South Africans' hopes with further tries.

South Africa certainly saw enough of the ball (54 percent), but tactically they were extremely naive and the Kiwis spent 75 percent of the time playing in the South African half and were never in danger of losing the game.

The semi-finals produced more than it's share of shockers.

England, one of the pre-tournament favourites, not only bombed out in the quarter-finals, but British rivals Scotland also upstaged them 19-17 in the Plate semi-final. Clark Laidlaw scored a try and conversion in the dying seconds to see Scotland through to the Plate Final.

They will meet the ever improving Australians there, after they beat Samoa 17-10 in the other Plate semi-final.

Japan upstaged the USA 29-12 in the first Shield semi-final and will meet Niue, who beat the Cook Islands 28-15.

Tonga beat Canada 24-15 in the first Bowl semi-final and will face the popular Kenyan team, who beat France 12-7 in the other Bowl semi.

Quarter-finals:

Earlier Fiji had booked their place in the semi-final  courtesy of a bruising 24-19 win over fancied England on Saturday. That kept them on course for a rematch with hosts New Zealand, who beat them in their pool match on Day One, Friday.

Led by Marika Vunibaka - approaching his best - the Fijians proved too strong for a strangely off-colour England, whose late try brought the score closer than it might have finished.

Fiji met the Pumas of Argentina, who overcame Scotland by 14-5 to book their semi-final berth.

The Kiwis also advanced to the semis, dispatching the Pacific Island side of Samoa 26-14. Roy Kinikinilau, the tournament's top try-scoring, went over for two of his team's four tries.

New Zealand faced South Africa in the semis, after the Springboks managed to sneak a 19-15 win over Australia. South Africa scored a last-minute try against the Australians to snatch victory.

With just a minute left on the clock Derick Kuun found a hole in Australia's defence and dived over for a try. Their conversion, by Jano Vermaak, made it 19-15 to South Africa. Although Australia won possession off the ensuing kickoff, they were unable to come up with a match winner in the last play of the game.

Results Day Two:

Bowl quarter-finals:
Canada 12-10 USA
Tonga 22-12 Japan
France 19-14 Cook Islands
Kenya 24-7 Niue

Cup quarter-finals:
England 19-24 Fiji
Argentina 14-5 Scotland
South Africa 19-15 Australia
New Zealand 26-14 Samoa

Shield semi-finals:
USA 12-29 Japan
Cook Islands 15-28 Niue

Bowl semi-finals:
Canada 15-24 Tonga
France 7-12 Kenya

Plate semi-finals:
England 17-19 Scotland
Australia 17-10 Samoa

Cup semi-finals:
Fiji 17-21 Argentina
South Africa 12-34 New Zealand

Shield Final:
Japan 19-29 Niue

Bowl Final:
Tonga 12-17 Kenya

Plate Final:
Scotland 0-27 Australia

Cup Final:
Argentina 7-31 New Zealand