New Zealand cruise to Singapore win

IRB Singapore Sevens - Day Two

New Zealand all but sealed their sixth consecutive IRB Sevens title by winning the Singapore leg of the 2004/05 series, shrugging of England's challenge in the cup final with a highly clinical 26-5 victory.

Singapore Sevens - Day Two:

THE CUP:

Final: England 5-26 New Zealand

New Zealand came into the Final with niggling injuries to Orene Ai'i and captain Liam Messam, but both men scored - Ai'i twice - to put England to the sword and win the 2005 Singapore title.

The New Zealanders were far superior and used their pace and strength to rattle England early and they never recovered or threatened in a one-sided final.

England started strongly but a knock-on by Ben Gollings turned over possession and man-of-the-tournament Amasio Valence sent Tafai Ioasa away for a long-range try.

New Zealand then shifted a gear and soon had England in trouble as Orene Ai'i danced around the defence to send the six-time IRB Sevens Series champions 14-0 up.

Liam Messam crossed soon after to leave the English bewildered at their lack of defence against the creative All Blacks attackers.

After the break Ai'i stretched the lead to 26-0 with a try in the corner before England finally got onto the board when Dan Hipkiss kneed the ball ahead and collected to score.

But that was too little too late as New Zealand won their fourth consecutive sevens tournament and virtually assured themselves of their sixth consecutive IRB Sevens Series title.

"You have to bounce back in life and that's what we did here today," said Messam.

"The defence was fantastic and we held on early and then played some great stuff.

"Amasio [Valence] was awesome here today and for the whole tournament. He's up there in the bracket of legends now. Over 1000 points and 100 tries and it was just an honour to play out there with him."

SF1: New Zealand 28-14 South Africa
SF2: Fiji 12-14 England

New Zealand will meet England in the Cup Final of the Singapore IRB Sevens. The English avenged their loss to Fiji in the final of last month's Sevens World Cup with a brave 14-12 victory in the semi-finals whilst New Zealand disposed of South Africa, the reigning Singapore champions.

New Zealand's Amasio Valence was the star of the first semi-final, grabbing 26 points - four tries and three conversions, while England's Ben Gollings exorcised some of his Hong Kong demons by converting his own try in the dying seconds to help England beat Fiji 14-12 in the second semi.

QF1: New Zealand 31-7 Scotland
QF2: Samoa 5-28 South Africa
QF3: Fiji 21-10 Argentina
QF4: England 17-14 Australia

England pipped Australia 17-14 in a tense encounter to progress to the semi-finals of the Singapore Sevens tournament. After some initial big hits by Australia, England found enough space for Will Matthews to open the scoring in the left corner.

The Australians responded almost immediately when Andrew Brown broke through Ben Gollings' tackle to go over for a converted try. But on the stroke of half-time England made a crucial breakthrough as a floated pass from Gollings to Geoff Appleford saw the South African-born player sprint home to give England a 10-7 lead at the break.

Early in the second half Josh Gamgege took advantage of a turnover to touch down, but the lead changed for the final time when Richard Haughton outpaced the Australia defence to score.

In the other quarter-finals, New Zealand thrashed Scotland 31-5, South Africa overcame Samoa 28-5 and Fiji were too good for Argentina, winning 21-10.

THE PLATE:

Final: Australia 5-14 Samoa

Samoa bounced back from the disappointment of not making the Cup quarter-finals in the Rugby World Cup by beating Australia 14-5 in the final of the Singapore Plate.

Elisara took the Samoans out to a 7-0 half time lead, but when Shawn MacKay brought the score back to 7-5 with three minutes remaining Australia were well in the match. Samoa managed to play the remainder in Australia's territory though, and closed out in emphatic style with a final try for Mikaele

SF1: Scotland 10-31 Samoa
SF2: Argentina 5-10 Australia

Australia bounced back from the disappointment of losing to England in their Cup quarter final with a 10-5 win over Argentina, holding on in the face of a late Puma onslaught to book a place in the Plate final, where they will face Samoa after they beat Scotland 31-10.

THE BOWL:

Final: Canada 12-19 France

France put day one defeats against Fiji and South Africa behind them to win 19-12 in the final against Canada, Sebastien Morel's try capping a fine win.

SF1: Hong Kong 5-36 Canada
SF2: France 31-12 Kenya

France put day one defeats against Fiji and South Africa behind them to book a place in the final courtesy of a 31-12 win over crowd-favourites Kenya. There they will meet Canada, who beat Hong Kong 36-5.

QF1: Chinese Taipei 7-26 Hong Kong
QF2: Canada 19-7 Thailand
QF3: France 33-5 China
QF4: Kenya 59-0 Singapore

THE SHIELD:

Final: China 17-10 Chinese Taipei

Chinese Taipei overcame China 17-10 in the Shield Final to win a very welcomed piece of silverware. The game was a tight affair, needing a late try by Yuan-Hsiang to take the game beyond the Chinese.

SF1: Chinese Taipei 21- 5 Thailand
SF2: China 26-0 Singapore

Chinese Taipei beat Thailand 21-5 in the first semi-final before China booked their place with victory over host nation Singapore 26-0, much to the dismay of the 13,000 home crowd.