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Samoa supreme at the Hong Kong Sevens
Hong Kong Sevens - March 26-28, 2010
After more than 6,000 meetings between corporates and investors, five days packed with keynote speeches from policymakers and economists, top level thematic panels, corporate presentations, insight from Credit Suisse analysts and a host of other events, it was time for attendees at the 2010 AIC to relax and enjoy the rugby.
As Friday afternoon turned into Friday evening, conference participants made their way across to the Hong Kong Stadium. The home of the world’s greatest sevens is surely also one of the world’s great rugby venues, a cauldron of light and noise surrounded by Hong Kong’s green hills and clusters of skyscrapers.
As usual, though, it was the action that captured the imagination. Samoa endured a ferocious early onslaught from New Zealand to emerge as winners of the Cathay Pacific / Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens. The islanders were popular winners for the third time but even they could not match the cheer raised for Hong Kong as the home team secured its first silverware for nine years.
True, Hong Kong won the tournament’s junior trophy, the Shield. But that did nothing to dampen the local crowd’s enthusiasm as the young team saw off Korea 31-14, Italy 26-19 and, in the final, Russia 19-17. Hong Kong’s impressive Sunday more than compensated for finishing bottom of Pool E on Saturday evening, although they did pull off an unexpected 21-19 victory against world champions Wales.
Samoa’s path to the title was not an easy one. They had to see off a concerted semi-final challenge from England, orchestrated once again by one of the legends of sevens rugby, Ben Gollings. In-form Samoa were simply too strong, though, overcoming England 28-24. In the other semi-final, Kurt Baker’s four tries helped the Kiwis to a 33-28 victory against Fiji, who scored some of the most memorable tries of the tournament, but whose defence could not deal with a powerful, direct and well-organized New Zealand attack.
Hong Kong Sevens finals have an incredible ability to live up to the occasion and this was no exception. New Zealand started with furious intent, scoring twice before Samoa had even touched the ball. But the Samoans forced their way back into the match, with Simaika Mikaele crossing for their first two tries.
The crucial passage of play came just before half time as Samoa lost captain Uale Mai to a yellow card. Playing a man down is even harder in the shorter form of the game than it is in 15-a-side rugby, but Samoa kept their composure and held New Zealand until Kurt Baker was also sin-binned.
In the second half, Samoa’s Mikaele Pesamino scored twice to take his overall tally in the IRB Sevens World Series to 47 and – more importantly – to put Samoa out of sight. New Zealand scored at the death to make the 24-21 final scoreline look close, but the Samoans were already celebrating by then.
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