Dubai: Defending champions Samoa crashed out of the Emirates Dubai Rugby Sevens on Friday after a 26-5 defeat to South Africa.
South Africa went into the interval with a 7-5 lead after Samoa’s Tulolo Tulolo cancelled out Sampie Mastriet’s early try, but while Branco du Preez successfully converted for the Springboks, Alastai Tupou missed.
That set the tone for the second half with South Africa going on to dominate. Du Preez, Werner Kok and Justin Geduld got the ball over the line, and while Du Preez missed the first conversion, Cecil Afrika and Cheslin Kolbe ensured their comfortable lead increased.
Samoa had earlier won their opening game in Pool D against Russia 33-12, before losing their second match to Argentina 19-12. That left everything to play for in their final group game of the evening. But South Africa, who had won both their earlier games against Argentina 17-7 and Russia 34-5, proved too big a hurdle for the Pacific islanders.
A devastated Samoa coach Viliamu Punivalu said he hoped his young and developing his side would make up for their mistakes on Saturday in the Bowl and Shield quarter-finals.
“As a coach I had high expectations and high standards for the boys to achieve,” said Punivalu, whose side finished a disappointing seventh in the first leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series last month, and are targeting a fourth-place series finish in his first season in charge. “I gave it to them [after the game] and said: ‘How can we work so hard in training only to come all this way and be defeated by our own laziness and lack of consistency?’.
“We can only look forward to tomorrow now and go one day at a time. Tomorrow I look forward to seeing some consistency and decision making, while cutting down on our mistakes.”
Of his side’s two first-day defeats, he added: “We were looking to reach the quarter-finals of the cup but unfortunately we let go of the pedal against Argentina and gave South Africa a good run, that’s how rugby is. But we are definitely better team from the Gold Coast and look to improve before round three in Port Elizabeth.”
Other than South Africa, joint-record four-time Dubai winners New Zealand are also going strong here after day one in the second round of the HSBC World Sevens Series. They beat France 24-5, Portugal 38-0 and Kenya 40-0. Meanwhile, Australia were also knocked out of the cup competition early after defeats to Scotland 21-17 and Wales 19-14 either side of a 45-0 consolation win over Spain.
“It’s been a really disappointing day, it was a tough group, and Scotland were a vastly improved side,” said coach Michael O’Connor. “What it all boiled down to was that we weren’t good enough against Scotland. We played better against Wales, but we just didn’t deserve it today.”
