Oceania Sevens - Men's Cup Semi Finals
a happy Tongan heading for a 5 pointer. photo Zoomfiji
way too much pace to stop this Tongan. photo Zoomfiji
Samoa and Tonga will contest the 2008 Oceania Sevens Men's Final and in doing so have qualified for the 2009 World Cup in Dubai.
The Samoan Sevens team turned up for Business on Day 2 of the 2008 Oceania Sevens and booked themselves a seat on the plane to Dubai with a 34-0 win over the Cook Islands in the first semi final of the Men's Competition.
The Hosts were ruthless in their disposal of the Cook Islands much to the delight of the large and vocal Samoan crowd.
David Lemi bagged a pair along with tries to Alafoti Faosiliva, Ofisa Treviranus, Timoteo Iosua and Reupena Levasa.
Tonga had a much harder time disposing of tournament surprise packets Niue in the second Semi-Final.
It took Tonga four minutes to open their account courtesy of a try to Vaea Poteki after a physical opening period.
The Niueans made the Tongans work for every metre as they matched the Tongans physically and showed a willingness to send the ball wide.
A second try gave the Friendly Islanders a 12-0 lead, but the Niueans struck back on the stroke of half with a try to Rudolf Ainu'u to stay in the hunt at 5-12.
A try early in the second half would have eased the heart rate of the Tongan management and two more in the second half gave Tonga an extremely hard fought 22-5 win over Niue.
Vaea Poteki scored a double for Tonga as did Tevita Tuipulotu.