Dubai: Fiji secured their second Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens title in three years with a 28-17 win over England at the Sevens Stadium on Saturday.
The HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series defending champions were 28-7 up at half-time after three tries from Savenaca Rawaca, Jasa Veremalua and Isake Katonibau all converted by Vatemo Ravouvou, saw Ben Ryan’s side fight back from an early Tom Bowen try converted by Dan Bibby.
Bowen and Phil Burgess added two more unconverted tries for England after the break but in the end the deficit was too much for the Red Roses.
Fiji coach Ryan, who used to manage England, has now won the Dubai title four times in the last six years, twice each with both England and Fiji.
“It’s good to win the opening salvo,” said Ryan. “I’ve done it a few times now with both England and Fiji and it gives you confidence that what you’re doing at home is actually working.
“We are ahead of the curve now compared to other teams and they will look at us now and try and work out how to negate that. But it’s a tough assignment for them because as soon as they take their eye off what they are doing in order to nullify us then we are able to create this aura about us.
“At the same time apart from five minutes of golden rugby tonight the second half was flat, but luckily those five minutes were enough.”
Fiji got this far by finishing top of Pool A with wins over Canada 63-14, Japan 21-17 and Argentina 28-0. They then overturned Australia 19-12 in the quarterfinal, and in the semi-final they beat record 12-time series champions and six-time Dubai winners New Zealand 19-5.
England had topped Pool D with victories over Wales 26-5, Kenya 19-12 and Australia 21-5, before outsmarting Argentina 14-7 and the USA 24-19 in the quarter and semis respectively.
England coach Simon Amor said: “When you get to the final you want to lift a trophy but I couldn’t be prouder of the effort and attitude of the boys right the way through this tournament.
“We’ve got some young guys and ones coming back from injury so it’s challenging as a coach. But ultimately that is a very good Fiji team, loads of experience, loads of world class players, so I’m really incredibly proud.”
In the third place playoff the USA beat a depleted New Zealand 31-12. It was a repeat of their 14-12 group stage win over the Kiwis the night before, and it added to their earlier scalp of South Africa 21-19 in the quarterfinal.
USA coach Mike Friday said: “I said at the start of the season that I wanted to be competitive and I wanted everyone to fear us and respect us and that’s what we are trying to build towards and I hope now we are starting to see it.”
New Zealand’s DJ Forbes said: “It was a war of attrition. I’m not making excuses but we were down to six men at one stage the rest are on crutches with broken bones. USA really got their confidence up after last night and came out firing again and we didn’t have much left in the tank.”
