Scotland Take Tenth Spot In Series With Bowl Triumph

Scotland lifted the USA 7s Bowl with back to back wins over Japan, Wales and Canada on day-two of the HSBC Sevens World Series event in Las Vegas last night. After battling hard in a tough day-one Pool containing the fourth and sixth-placed sides in the series, first losing narrowly to Australia (12-7) and then Fiji (31-14), Scotland confirmed their place as the top seeded Bowl qualifier with a 21-19 win over Canada, a side they would meet and overcome once more in the day-two final. Scotland 7s head coach Graham Shiel said: “Today we were much more accurate. We controlled possession and were ultimately successful because of a combination of factors coming together… Scotland lifted the USA 7s Bowl with back to back wins over Japan, Wales and Canada on day-two of the HSBC Sevens World Series event in Las Vegas last night. After battling hard in a tough day-one Pool containing the fourth and sixth-placed sides in the series, first losing narrowly to Australia (12-7) and then Fiji (31-14), Scotland confirmed their place as the top seeded Bowl qualifier with a 21-19 win over Canada, a side they would meet and overcome once more in the day-two final. Scotland 7s head coach Graham Shiel said: “Today we were much more accurate. We controlled possession and were ultimately successful because of a combination of factors coming together. “I can’t fault the players’ endeavours. Las Vegas has been a challenging week for us with a lot of travelling in the last fortnight and injuries to players but they stuck to the task mentally and physically to achieve their goal of taking home some series points. “I’d like to commend our medical team who deserve a lot of credit for keeping the guys on the pitch, there’s an awful lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to allow these guys to perform. “Ultimately we’re chasing a place in the Cup quarter-final. We’re making small gains and plan to achieve success through small steps and improve our overall standing in the world.” Finishing third on day one meant Scotland would start their journey to the Bowl final against Pool D’s fourth-placed finisher, Japan. In an impressive first-half Scotland ran in three unanswered tries through captain Scott Riddell, Andrew Skeen and Fraser Harkness. All three tries were converted by Skeen, Ross Samson and Harkness respectively to give Scotland a comfortable lead at the break before young centre, Alex Dunbar, scored a fourth after a minute of second-half play. Harkness added another conversion to end the game as a contest before Japan’s Sione Faamo Teaupa got a late consolation try after the hooter, which was then converted by Shohei Toyoshima (28-7). Next up would be arguably Scotland’s biggest challenge of the knockout stages in the form of home nations rivals and current World Champions, Wales. The pressure of the encounter was telling in the opening exchanges as the first three minutes were marred by uncharacteristic handling errors on both sides. However, once the teams settled into their stride, it was Wales who struck first when Richard Pugh battered over from short range. Rhys Jones converted, 7-0. Scottish disappointment was short-lived however as they piled forward. Dunbar was the try-scoring catalyst as his direct, powerful running earned the hard yards through a gap in midfield before being brought down just short of the line. The 21-year-old centre then popped the ball up off the deck to the supporting Riddell to dive over for the unconverted score (5-7). In the second-half, a far more composed Scotland side secured the ball and worked their way up the field, yard by yard, and side to side, in an exhausting passage of play for the dogged Welsh defence before, after almost four minutes of constant Scottish possession, replacement forward Mark Cairns got the break-through try at the posts. Samson added the extras to extend Scotland’s lead to 12-7 but the Welsh responded well with some well aligned running rugby, eventually putting Lee Rees through for an equalising try before Gareth Davies sent, what would have been a match-winning conversion, wide of the mark (12-12). After the re-start Scotland’s patient play was brought to the table once more before the ball was sent down the wing to Struan Dewar. The young back-row stood-up Pugh with a quick double step and a solid stiff arm before scoring at the corner almost two minutes after the hooter to put Scotland through to the Bowl final with Pool opponents Canada (17-12). Scotland’s final got off to a fantastic start, as they ran in three tries in five minutes: one from Riddell and a brace from Samson. Samson sent two from three through the sticks and Scotland were looking in good shape to take home the silverware. However a brace of converted scores from Canada’s Nathan Hirayama either side of the half made for a very nervous finish which, with one minute remaining, was compounded by the sin-binning of Samson who would be absent of the remainder of the match. In the exhausting passage of play that followed, Canada threatened the Scottish try line but the Scots stood firm and put enough pressure on Canada to force a handling error after the hooter to seal the second Bowl victory for the side in four weeks and move Scotland into tenth pace in the series (19-14). Scotland 7s squad:Mark Cairns (Currie), David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby/Hawick), Struan Dewar (Edinburgh Rugby elite development/Heriot’s), Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors), Michael Fedo (Team Northumbria), Graham Fisken (West of Scotland), James Fleming (Glasgow Warriors/Dundee), Fraser Harkness (Selkirk), James Johnstone (Glasgow Warriors elite development/Currie), Scott Riddell (Stewart’s Melville FP), Ross Samson (Edinburgh Rugby), Andrew Skeen (Watsonians)