Rugby sevens: Kick in the teeth for the Australians

Samoans leave Huxley in despair as England are edged out by Fijians

As England made their exit from the Commonwealth Games Sevens tournament, Samoa produced the biggest shock of the night by knocking out Australia in the quarter-finals.

Ecstasy for the Samoans and the vast majority of the crowd of 38,000 at the City of Manchester stadium, agony for Julian Huxley. Australia, bronze medallists in the Games at Kuala Lumpur four years ago, trailed 12-0 before Richard Graham responded with a try 90 seconds from time, and then in the last move of the match Huxley ran virtually the length of the pitch to make it 12-10.

Although Huxley was prevented from touching down under the posts, he scored close enough to them to make the conversion almost a formality. However, his kick rebounded off the left-hand upright, ricocheted on to the right-hand upright and simply refused to cross the bar. As the Samoans celebrated, Huxley slumped to his knees, his head in his hands. Had he kicked the conversion to level at 12-12, the match would have gone into extra time, with a golden point deciding the outcome.

As it is, Samoa go into the semi-finals today, when they will meet mighty New Zealand. In a tense, tight match, Samoa struck first with a try from Semo Sititi and they increased their lead just before the interval through Gaolo Elisala and, of course, the conversion of his try proved crucial.

"The crowd really got behind us, which was very important,'' Elisala said. Graham, the Australian captain, said: "That wasn't the way it was meant to turn out but Samoa played very well. The things that we talked about prior to the game we just didn't execute.

"I don't know whether it was our handling, our tackling or our breakdown work. We didn't execute the basics very well. In the pool games you've got to get progressively better and we achieved that, but it doesn't count for anything if you can't win your quarter-final.''

England, who won the Hong Kong Sevens earlier this year, beating Fiji in the final, this time went out to the Pacific Islanders after another desperately close affair. Two sets of aggressive defences cancelled each other out in the first half, which remained pointless, and it was England who drew first blood.

Ben Gollings put Fiji on the back foot with a kick and chase which resulted in a penalty. England worked the ball to the right wing, where Paul Sampson dived over in the corner. However, Simon Amor miskicked the conversion attempt and it turned out to be an important mistake. England's lead was threatened when Gollings was penalised for a push and Rupeni Caucaunibuca chipped through and was first to the ball as it rolled over the line near the posts. Waisale Serevi made no mistake with the conversion and it proved to be the difference between the sides. England were awarded a penalty when Rob Thirlby was hurt in a head-high tackle from Jope Tuikabe but England, vitally lacking pace, could not breach the Fijian defence.

"I'm absolutely gutted," Gollings said. "We had our sights set on gold and we thought we were good enough. We made all the chances and played better than Fiji. It's a sad way to go out. We put on a brave face but we'll be hurting deep down inside.''

Joe Lydon, the England coach, said: "We felt we had enough quality in the squad to beat Fiji but one mistake let them back in. That's the nature of sevens.''

New Zealand were the first to progress to the semi-finals as Wales suffered a black-out. The New Zealanders, world ranked No 1 and the Commonwealth Games defending champions, scored four tries without reply.

The favourites were soon into their stride, Bruce Reihana stepping out of an attempted tackle by Gareth Baber to open the scoring. In sevens, possession is ten-tenths of the law and Wales found it difficult to get their hands on the ball. When they did they invariably found the New Zealand defence aggressive, powerful and suffocating. Brad Fleming, with their second try, made it 14-0 at half-time, and in the second half, Mils Muliaina helped himself to two tries in the 24-0 victory.

"They showed why they're the best side in the world,'' Jason Forster, the Wales captain, said. "It's going to take something special to knock them off their perch. Our guys gave 100 per cent but it just shows how far you've got to come to knock the top teams off their pedestal.''

Reihana begged to differ: "We have a lot to improve upon,'' he said. "It was more confrontational than we would have liked. We've got to get away from that type of thing and stick to our game.'' He was talking about a clash between Craig Newby and Gareth Gravell, in which the Welshman appeared to headbutt the New Zealander.

In the last quarter-final South Africa tipped Canada on the so-called golden point after they had been tied on 12-12. In extra time, the side to score went through, and the South Africans were indebted to Jean de Villiers, who touched down in the left-hand corner for the precious score.

Scotland, eliminated from the main competition following defeats to Canada and New Zealand, found life more comfortable in the Bowl last night, when they outplayed Sri Lanka 57-0. Today, in the semi-finals of the Bowl, Scotland play the Cook Islands.