Scotland and Spain to lock-horns in Wellington Bowl competition

Scotland 7s will meet Spain in the Bowl quarter-finals, overnight, tonight in Wellington, with the match kicking off at 12.22am for a UK audience.The Scots’ best efforts on day one of the fifth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series came against USA, where they drew, 19-19, in their closing group match, after a last gasp try from Andrew Turnbull.Turnbull scored a further four tries throughout the day and was joined on the score sheet by James Johnstone v Canada and Alex Glashan v USA. Captain Colin Gregor converted five tries.However, none of these scores were enough to secure a place in the Cup quarter-finals, as the team slumped to an opening defeat to Canada, 17-14, followed by a 17-12 loss to Argentina.Head coach, Stephen Gemmell, said: “We’re overwhelmed with feelings of disappointed. All week we spoke about the opportunity this group gave us to qualify for the Cup competition.”However, we were too indecisive throughout the day and have ultimately ended up on the wrong side of three very close matches.”We chose to kick our last penalty v USA to touch and not play for points because we knew a draw was enough to finish above them in the group and that was the best we could do, by that stage.We now have to move forward into the Bowl competition. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves here because every World Series point is vital now.”We must learn from our mistakes and cut out all the unforced errors we are causing. Every individual in this team needs to take responsibility for themselves and the team, if we do that tonight, we will function, as a whole, better.” Wellington 7s day oneScotland 14-17 CanadaTries: James Johnstone and Andrew TurnbullConversions: Colin Gregor (2)Starting team: Scott Riddell, Struan Dewar, Colin Gregor, Mark Robertson, Michael Maltman, Russell Weir and James Johnstone.Replacements: Darren Gillespie (8mins), Andrew Turnbull (9mins), Finlay Gillies, Alex Glashan (12mins) and Gregor Young (13mins).Scotland 12-17 ArgentinaTries: Andrew Turnbull (2)Conversion: Colin GregorStarting team: Scott Riddell, Finlay Gillies, Struan Dewar, Colin Gregor, Mark Robertson, Russell Weir and Andrew Turnbull.Replacements: Alex Glashan (9mins), Darren Gillespie (12mins), Michael Maltman, James Johnstone and Gregor Young (not used).Scotland 19-19 USATries: Alex Glashan, Andrew Turnbull (2)Conversions: Colin Gregor (2)Starting team: Scott Riddell, Finlay Gillies, Struan Dewar, Alex Glashan, Colin Gregor, Mark Robertson and Andrew Turnbull.Replacements: James Johnstone, Gregor Young (10mins), Darren Gillespie, Michael Maltman and Russell Weir.