Ambrose Curtis in action for New Zealand on Day One of the Dubai Sevens
Photo: IRB / Martin Seras Lima

by Brendan Bradford –

New Zealand, Fiji, South Africa and Wales completed clean sweeps of their Pools to advance undefeated to the quarter-finals of the Dubai Sevens overnight. Scotland, England, Kenya and Argentina round out the Cup contenders in the second tournament of the World Sevens Series, while Australia and defending champions Samoa will contest the Bowl on the second day of competition.

Gold Coast champions New Zealand were convincing in wins over France, Portugal and Kenya, scoring 112 points and only conceding five. The men in black now have a last-eight showdown with Argentina who lost their first match against South Africa before besting Samoa and Russia later in the day.

“Argentina have done pretty well to get where they are and there’s no easy games in the IRB World Sevens tournaments now,” said New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens.

“We’ll look at Argentina and hopefully we can win that and move on. We started pretty scratchily early on – especially in the first half against France – but from then we’ve kicked on and it’s about confidence and a good team needs to play together well and we’re starting to do that.”

Australia’s Shannon Walker sets off on another burst – Photo: IRB / Martin Seras Lima

Fiji avenged their loss to England on the Gold Coast in October with a 26-21 victory in the last match of the day to give coach Ben Ryan his first taste of success over his old side. Trailing 26-7 with less than three minutes on the clock, England scored two quick tries to give themselves a chance of a win as Fiji slacked off at the death.

“We were controlled for about nine or ten minutes there but when we were three scores up, we just went to sleep and almost gave a win to England,” said Ryan after the Fiji match.

“We said we wanted to keep the ball alive, pick four forwards and move them around a bit and the boys fronted up well.”

England play a dangerous Welsh outfit in the quarter-finals while Fiji play a Scottish side coming off wins over Australia and Spain.

“(Beating Australia) is massive and we’ve shown we can do it in the past in isolation and one-off games but we need to get away from that,” said Scotland coach Stephen Gemmell.  

“If we’re going to be a top eight team, we have to be more consistent. Winning games in isolation is great and it gives a boost of confidence, but winning regularly against these top eight teams is what we need to do.”

In a match that promises plenty of fireworks, South Africa square off against Kenya and former coach Paul Treu after the BlitzBokke swept aside Argentina, Russia and Samoa in the pool stages.

Australia were on the back foot from the get go with a first up 21-17 loss to Scotland before a win over Spain and a 19-14 loss to Wales. The Aussies play the USA while Samoa take on France, Canada face Spain and Portugal play Russia in the Bowl quarter-finals.

Quarter-Finals Fixtures –

Cup –

New Zealand v Argentina

Fiji v Scotland

South Africa v Kenya

Wales v England

Bowl –

Portugal v Russia

Canada v Spain

Samoa v France

Australia v USA