Scotland 7s today achieved the extraordinary – again – by defeating hosts England 12-7 to retain the Cup trophy in the final leg of the HSBC World 7s Series in London.
A narrow defeat to France on Day 1 seemed to make this feat impossible given the opposition drawn for their quarter final, but with the Melrose trio of Mark Robertson and Scott Wight alongside coach Calum MacRae saying goodbye to the setup, anything appeared possible.
Scotland enjoyed an easy start to Day 1, comfortably defeating Russia 21-7 with it clear there was certainly more in the bag. Although the Russians struggled in defence on the flanks, significant pressure was exerted in the middle of the park, resulting in some unnecessary handling errors from the Scots. Nonetheless, the try scoring exploits of Robertson, James Fleming and Jo Nayacavou provided enough for victory.
A sterner a test came from an Argentinian side only marginally behind the Scots in the overall standings. The game remained tight throughout with no side holding the lead for that long. The score remained level at 5-5 by half time, although it took a strong showing late in the second half for Scotland to stretch out a lead, Fleming and Nayacavou again scoring the crucial tries. A late Javier Rojas try brought the score line closer, but the 26-19 final score secured Scotland’s place in the Cup Quarter Finals for the 5th time this season.
The final game of Day 1 was against last weeks hosts, France. Win and Scotland would face Canada first on Day 2; lose and New Zealand would be the opposition. Despite conceding a yellow card, France quickly jumped out to a 0-10 lead, although the assured combination of Robertson and Wight scored, narrowing the deficit to three by half time.
A raft of substitutions were made after the break and but it was one of the starters, George Horne, who was next to cross inching Scotland back into the lead. However, the ball was lost from the restart, allowing France to gallop the length of the field to score. Persistent mistakes in possession resulted in a final score of Scotland 12 – 17 France.
New Zealand it was.
Unbeaten versus Scotland in rugby history across either code, New Zealand were yet to win a series Cup trophy this season. However a lacklustre first half where Scotland leaked three tries through defensive errors appeared to move them one step closer to this target and 21-0 looked insurmountable. Then the second half started…
Dougie Fife, the man who scored a double in the final in London last year looked like he wanted to repeat this effort and, making the most of some good overlaps, crossed twice in quick succession for Scotland. The score had shifted to 12-21 and New Zealand now appeared to be getting on the wrong side of the referee.
If Scotland have anyone to thank it may well be the assistant referee on the main stand side who first flagged a fairly minor neck roll, giving Scotland the penalty that resulted in Jamie Farndale’s try with only seconds remaining.
With the hooter having announced full time, the assistant then (correctly) noticed that New Zealand were playing with eight players. Which meant another penalty, and the ball. On the pitch that Scotland sevens seem to love mounting second half comebacks on, Farndale crossed again with a man to spare outside and the comeback was complete.
Who ever thought New Zealand fans would complain about refs on twitter in a similar fashion to Welsh Pro12 supporters, or indeed us?!
The USA, champions in London in 2015, were up next in the Semi Finals. In a rather more cagey affair, the simple message for the Scottish defence appeared to be “stop Perry Baker”. Which is a solid strategy, given his pace. Nonetheless the lanky American winger broke through to cancel out an early Scottish lead, although some incredible defence by George Horne stopped it becoming a double.
Glenn Bryce and Baker again traded tries in the second half, leaving the score at 14-14 after 14 minutes. However, Scotland kept the ball in possession and eventually that man Nayacavou reached over the line. Time for a second Cup Final in as many weeks, and once again Scotland were finishing the season strongly.
You can watch the whole final here.
Having disposed of Canada 24-5, the hosts seemed to be the only team that could protect Scotland’s long-standing tag of underdogs. Indeed the first half was a demonstration of English power and speed; Dan Norton scoring one of the tries of the season by weaving around most of the Scottish defence.
This time last year Scotland came from two tries down, so with just seven points the deficit at the turnaround, anything was possible. Scotland struck early with Hugh Blake scoring a crucial first try of the tournament, converted by the ever-present Wight. Could history repeat itself?
With two minutes left, the tactic of risky offloads remained in use as Nayacavou again launched the ball over his head. Despite the risks which hadn’t paid off against France on Day One, the ball was reclaimed by Robertson who straightened and then released captain Scott Riddell who sprinted over in the corner. A nervous minute or so followed but after reclaiming the ball at a scrum, a magical victory was sealed.
This capped off a perfect send off for Robertson, who has remained a crucial part of the national 7s setup for the past decade. Teammate Wight, meanwhile, has provided huge stability both as a playmaker and a captain, despite making his national sevens debut later in his career. As such it was fitting that both were named in the official 7s Dream Team for the weekend. For coach Calum MacRae, this will provide great confidence and indeed pride as he joins the coaching setup at Edinburgh.
Performances like the ones over the last couple of weeks as well as a strong opening to the season (4th in Cape Town, 3rd in Wellington) have demonstrated that Scotland have the ability to compete right at the top given a consistent squad. If composure and consistency can be maintained throughout the entire Sevens Series as other sides catch up to traditional leaders New Zealand and Fiji, there is no reason why Scotland cannot challenge for the series title in the coming years.
SRBlog Scottish Player of the Tournament: Mark Robertson fittingly won the official award for his performance in the final (including popping his shoulder in a crunch tackle) and over the weekend the whole team played a crucial role in retaining the trophy. Although Nayacavou stood out for his try scoring exploits, our award goes to George Horne who has adapted extremely well to the shortened game and was a threat in both attack and defence.
18 Responses
Victory in the Final!
Oh how sweet!! And better still England!!
Talk about aggressive defence to shut down a very good England seven. So pleased for the squad and for the fans who were there today. Coming back from 0-21 h/t in the QF to win the tournament was just epic. Many thanks to the Cask and Barrel in Broughton Street for screening it!
Loved it today. At Twickenham against England complete second half with George Horne winning hat turnover :)
And talk about a ball carrying number 8… Nayacavou, wow. Why is he not at Glasgow or Edinburgh??? He is too old for the World Cup? Has he ever been part of the 15 man set up other than at Doncaster?
Couldnt think of a better send off for the head coach and 1 or 2 players than to screw england at twickenham.
a small glimpse of hope for edinburgh next season ?
If we win the London sevens next year, do we get to keep Twickenham?
After the 6N game we might have to win it 4 times on the bounce……
Clarke Laidlaw would have been an excellent replacement as sevens coach somebody at the Sru must have been asleep letting him go to coach the kiwis
How awe-inspiring was that? The mental aptitude of the squad is incredible – they just do not allow themselves to consider defeat as an option if there is less than a score in it and they have the ball!
The exploits in the 1/4 and Semi, to win both games, would usually be enough reason to celebrate their achievements, but to win the final in the manner they did was raspberry sauce and chocolate sprinkles on top of a double 99. It has to be said that Dan Norton’s run for the English score was the equivalent of a Cornetto on a sunny day all on its own – a cracking score.
As mentioned in the report, it is astonishing how well George Horne has taken to 7s at this level. His defensive work is immense for a lad that size, and he has such a keen eye for the gap. But you have to say that all the squad did the needful.
The squad will miss Robertson and Wight next year without a doubt. They are both cracking players, and how Robertson stayed on after that dunt on the shoulder only he will know.
Is it wrong to say that I’ll miss Scott Wights legs as well? In a sport dominated by some truly massive blokes, it always makes me think “I could do that” when I watched him make a cheeky break on those Grade-A Scottish milkbottle matchstick pins…..
Brilliant.
We even managed to beat NZ in the QF despite them doing their eighth player trick again. Very good spot from the linesman. They got away with it in 2016 when Joubert didn’t spot it. I’m fairly sure that introducing an automatic forfeit rule would cure the New Zealanders counting problems.
I think it might have been the reason we won, since we were awarded a penalty.
Was down at a fashion show with scott johnson earlier , both wearing our leopard skin outfits of course, he told me has has been talking with team GB about scrapping the sevens teams for scotland wales and england and combining them so that the sru have more cash to increase his salary with , the nerve!
seriously though … scotland just win a title and beat the all blacks and this crap comes up on the news, such a load of bollocks.
And so it is – bollocks that is. Very few opportunities for up and coming players. Sevens is one, top academy / fringe squad loans to LS and that’s about it.
George Horne did himself a power of good the last couple of weeks. I think Gregor missed a trick there. Kennedy will never get there IMO, Horne might. Third choice scrummie isn’t going to do much more than eyeball the bench. The experience would have been good for Horne. I’m not a fan of taking people on tour for ‘the experience’, but I know if push came to shove and we had injuries who I would prefer on the bench.
I was at the NSW Waratahs v Rebels game on Sunday and spotted Scott Johnson. I wonder if he is home on ‘annual leave’ or keeping an eye open for project players?!
good spot ! Don’t know anyone could have identified him with that massive pre 90’s mullet atop that gargantuan heed though !
Does Alex Toolis not play for the Rebels? I think he might be injured anyway…..
I get that the 7’s squad costs the SRU money, but I would think that the intangible assets that it brings would far outweigh the financial cost, particularly as the 7’s lads are doing so well and playing some exciting stuff. This will only encourage more youngsters to take up rugby which will, in the long term, benefit Scotland as a whole.
If the 3 nations were merged I couyld guarantee the sport would lose a lot of supporters.
Inevitable Scotland would be marginalised in a joint team too. Which would be a massive kick to the balls after the recent strides forward.
Does each union get remunerated on performance? I know that by losing the Scottish leg the funding was an issue, but the upturn in performance may have compensated for that???
Also do we know if and when there will be a re-review of the circuit hosts? I’d argue that New Zealand, Australia & Singapore offer such poor attendances that Scotland should be re-considered – certainly if the inventors of the game don’t have a divine right to host then neither should any of those countries