Fiji ran rampant in the USA Sevens final in Las Vegas on Monday afternoon, brushing aside a tired New Zealand team 35-19.
An injury affected New Zealand side couldn’t match the power and pace of Fiji in the final, but restored some pride with a late barrage.
With Joe Webber, Gillies Kaka, and Murphy Taramai unavailable for the final through injury, not to mention the first choice players of DJ Forbes and Tim Mikkelson watching from the couch in New Zealand, the Kiwis were always going to struggle.
Webber, who had been superb in Las Vegas, was ruled out after suffering a concussion during the semifinal win over the United States.
But the performance of Gordon Tietjens’ young team gave the master coach plenty of reason to smile.
“I thought we came back brilliantly at the end to score 19 points,” Tietjens said.
“It’s been a tough week. It was always going to be quite demanding getting into a final, 10 minutes each way against a team like Fiji, but we learn from that.
“We started slowly and you can’t start slowly against a team like Fiji. They got a lot of loose ball, they’ve got a lovely set of skills and they scored some great tries.”
For Fiji, it was their second win of the World Rugby sevens series season after a first-up win on the Gold Coast in October last year.
They had massive support from the Fijian American community at Sam Boyd Stadium, with people flying in from all around the country to fly the Fijian flag.
That enthusiasm brushed off on the team, who were superb throughout.
New Zealand enjoyed good early possession and territory, pushing Fiji deep into their own half.
But Fiji were ruthless when they eventually won the ball back, with Jerry Tuwai sprinting 70m to open the scoring after some sloppy play at the breakdown.
Tuwai doubled the advantage two minutes later when Fiji worked their way into New Zealand’s half of the field, skipping through the defence to get under the posts.
With a minute remaining in the first half Beaudein Waaka was harshly handed a yellow card for throwing the ball away, when he appeared to pass it as the referee blew his whistle for a penalty.
Fiji capatilised on the extra man, Savenaca Rawaca powering through the defence to score.
That gave Fiji a 21-0 lead at the break, and saw five streakers take the field as the teams ran through their halftime messages.
Once they were cleared the teams returned and Fiji continued as they had finished the first half when Semi Kunatani crossed for his team’s fourth try.
Jack Goodhue struck back for New Zealand with seven minutes remaining, but the Kiwis seemed to be lacking energy and injuries were taking their toll.
Kunatani grabbed his second soon after, before Ambrose Curtis replied with a quick fire double off the bench, giving New Zealand some respectability on the scoreboard.
It was too little, too late for New Zealand, giving Fiji a deserving victory.
The next leg of the world series is in Hong Kong next month and Tietjens said he will have to wait and see on the fitness of Webber, Kaka and Taramai, not to mention Forbes and Mikkelson.
“To have four of our players out injured and unavailable, that really tests your depth and I think we’ve done really well considering that.”
