Posted at 7:22 a.m., Sunday, April 8, 2007
Fiji beats Samoa in IRB World Sevens rugby tournament
Associated Press
ADELAIDE, Australia — Defending champions Fiji, coming from behind for the fourth time in six matches, extended their lead in the IRB World Sevens rugby tournament today with a 21-7 win over Samoa.Fiji, leading the standings after six of eight rounds with 104 points to Samoa's 94, beat South Africa 22-17 in the quarterfinals and New Zealand 24-17 in the semis. Samoa won last weekend's Hong Kong Sevens tournament.
In the Plate final Sunday, losing quarterfinalist Australia beat South Africa 31-0. Wales took the Bowl title with a 26-14 victory over Tonga and Canada defeated Japan 43-17 to win the Shield.
Fiji ran in three tries on either side of halftime after falling behind in the first half of the final.
Captain Semisi Serevi said he appreciated the large Fijian support base in Adelaide, which was hosting an international sevens tournament for the first time.
''It was great to see the people of Fiji in Australia,'' he said. ''We didn't know, we thought there were only 50 families in Adelaide, but it looks like 5,000 were here.''
There are two rounds left in this year's competition — May 26-27 at Twickenham, England and June 2-3 at Murrayfield, Scotland.
