Dubai: Samoan captain Afa Aiono credited his side’s hunger and self-belief after they claimed their first Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens title with a 26-15 destruction of New Zealand on Saturday night.
It was the Pacific Island nation’s third attempt at a Dubai crown having lost in 2009 and 2010 to New Zealand and England. But from the outset it was clear Manu Samoa weren’t going to befall the same fate thrice.
Paul Perez put them in front with two early tries, with Pat Faapale converting once. Ben Lam and DJ Forbes closed the gap to two but a Lio Lolo try and Faapale kick extended Samoa’s lead to 19-10 before the interval. Kurt Baker got New Zealand’s deficit down to four shortly after but Tulolo Tulolo put the Samoans back in control before Faapale made it an unassailable 11-point lead.
Aiono said: “This is a really exciting moment for the boys they played really well. There are a lot of new guys in the team but they stepped up and believed in themselves that they could do the job.
“It’s our first win in Dubai and we’ve been really looking forward to winning the cup here. We’re really proud that we’ve done it, we played really well.”
Speaking of their indifferent start to the tournament, after a narrow 24-19 win over Portugal, a 19-17 loss to England and a 10-5 stay of execution against South Africa, Afiono added: “There was a bit of pressure on us. It was a very tough group. But we just went out and executed our gameplan, working on the basics. We were confident and came back against England but it was too late. That loss pushed us on.
They beat Wales 19-7 in the quarter-finals and truly asserted their authority with a 12-5 defeat of France in the semis.
“Our passing enabled us to win,” said Afiono. “We played with more hunger for the victory and we did it. We’re not really surprised. We’ve been practicing for this and looking forward to our first Dubai win for a long time. We’ve been training hard to win the tournament.”
The Samoans are now joint second in the current Sevens World Series, which they’ve previously won once in 2009/10. They are on 32 points with Kenya and Fiji, six points behind New Zealand after two rounds of the current campaign, in which the Kiwis have finished runners-up twice. In round one the Samoans exited in the plate semi-final, while Fiji beat New Zealand in the cup final and Kenya finished fourth. The Kenyan’s finished third in Dubai, winning the play-off against France, while it was the turn of the Fijians to crash out in the plate semis.
Afiono said: “If we’re consistent hopefully we can win the series again. But all the teams in the series are good teams. We’ve seen a lot of upsets in this competition so it’s difficult to predict. Everyone’s tough and battling.”
