Sevens- day 1 in Wellington

As daylight is fading in New Zealand’s capital city, so too are a few teams chances of progressing on a day of upsets.

For starters Wales put a superb effort together to trounce New Zealand on their home track, at one stage it looked like a cricket score was on the way. But NZ pride saw a comeback, which came up short 17-28 in favour of the Dragon. This really put the cat amongst the pigeons and more so called little teams have stepped up.

Tonga played well against South Africa, 7s is brutal that is can seem so close and yet you still go down 5-22 as they Tongans did. Kenya and Tonga had a blinder of a game and the men from the Kingdom were piped by 7 going down 21-14.

The Cook Islands met Samoa first up, this was their performance of the day and they showed great character and awesome defence to hold Samoa to 5-12. The Cooks looked hot, but fatigue and inexperience saw Fiji romp through in game 2.
 

The Flying Fijians were stung badly by the USA in game 1, loosing 10-15 at the hooter. Against their Cook Island cousins though they got right back on track with a solid win 55 zip.

Niue played with grit, pace and passion. Their game so far was against Australia and they were oh so close in that one going down 17-22. Their physique is huge and out wide they have great wingers that just pin their ears back and head to the corner.

Oceania’s big boys NZ, Australia and Samoa are looking very composed; Fiji is in a bad place and need to beat Samoa in tonight’s game to progress through to the quarterfinals tomorrow. Tonga is looking good to get in the last 8 and Oceania teams are making an impact in Wellington.

Later tonight sees some stunning match ups, spots in the last 8 are up for grabs and the vocal crowd are singing and cheering their way through beers and junk food watching in bliss.