Golden try sinks Boks
4 Feb 2006
Fiji beat South Africa 27-22 after extra time to capture their second successive IRB Sevens title in Wellington on Saturday.
The victory leaves Fiji on 56 points in the series, 16 clear of England and South Africa.
While Fiji were contesting their third Cup final of the year here in Wellington, South Africa were playing their first and, if Paul Treu’s men were slightly nervous, the Fijians capitalised fully with William Ryder the star of the first half.
The final was a great advert for the game, and also for the remarkable talents of William Ryder and the never-say-die attitude of Paul Treu’s men. Serevi’s young protege scored a try early on, which was cancelled out by a fine Fabian Juries effort, but responded with a fine run to the line for his second and then cut loose in midfield to give a mesmeric blind pass, which set free Dranivasa for his side’s third and a 17-5 half time lead.
The second period saw South Africa rally though, and Juries scored again before Ryder capped a thrilling display with his hat-trick with little over two minutes to go. But Burger pulled one back to make it 22-17 and then, in a thrilling climax, Gio Aplan went over to make it 22-22. Basson missed the conversion and golden try time followed.
Basson kicked clear and attacked and so nearly scored, but Serevi, now on the field, calmed his side, and looked for Neumi Nanuku, who first jinxed clear and then sprinted the length of the pitch beyond the despairing Basson. Fiji’s crown, 27-22.
Earlier in the day, hosts and defending champions New Zealand crashed out to Fiji in the semis.
Gordon Tietjens’ young side played their most impressive game of the tournament in beating Argentina 26-12 in the quarter-finals, but then were blown away 26-14 by the Fijians.
The Sevens Boks, who had earlier lost to the Argentineans 7-0 in the pool stages, bounced back to beat Samoa 17-12 in the semis and then hit their straps with a 28-5 demolition job of the French.
Latest
Cup quarter-finals:
New Zealand 26 (Lote Raikabula 2, Corey Jane, Zar Lawrence tries; Amasio Valence 3 con) Argentina 12 (Francisco Bosch, Pablo Gomez Cora tries; Marcelo Bosch con)
France 19 England 14
South Africa 17 Samoa 12
Fiji 21 Australia 14
Cup semfinals:
South Africa 28 France 5
Fiji 26 (Jone Daunivucu, Epeli Dranivasa, Neumi Nanuku 2 tries; 3 con) New Zealand 14 (Lote Raikabula, Nigel Hunt tries; Amasio Valence 2 con)
Bowl quarter-finals:
Canada 33 Papua New Guinea 10
Scotland 14 Niue 12
Kenya 15 Tonga 14
Cook Islands 43 USA 5
Bowl semifinals:
Scotland 52 Kenya 0
Canada 33 Cook Islands 10
Shield semifinals:
Tonga 21 Niue 14
Papua New Guinea 15 USA 12
Shield final:
Tonga 19 Papua New Guinea 14
Plate semifinals:
England 21 Samoa 17
Argentina 21 Australia 17
Plate final:
England 14 Argentina 10
Cup final:
Fiji 27 South Africa 22
28 Comments
4 Feb 2006, 10:00 am
go the 1/2 boks
4 Feb 2006, 10:01 am
when (time/date) is the final being played, today?
4 Feb 2006, 10:09 am
GAme started at 10am SA Time
4 Feb 2006, 10:11 am
Eng 14 Arg 10 in the PLate Final
4 Feb 2006, 10:28 am
tx shark – keep us updated pls man.
4 Feb 2006, 10:32 am
who scored in SA’s semi?
4 Feb 2006, 10:33 am
PA
Getting my news off IRBSEVENS.COM.
The England score was there about 3 minutes after the scheduled finish. There is still no SA score so the game must be in extra time. Will let you know.
4 Feb 2006, 10:37 am
SA 22 Fiji 27
4 Feb 2006, 10:39 am
The final was a marvellous advert for the game, and also for the remarkable talents of William Ryder and the never-say-die attitude of Paul Treu’s men. Serevi’s young protegé scored a try early on, which was cancelled out by a fine Fabian Juries effort, but responded with a fine run to the line for his second and then cut loose in midfield to give a mesmeric blind pass, which set free Dranivasa for his side’s third and a 17-5 half time lead.
The second period saw South Africa rally though, and Juries scored again before Ryder capped a thrilling display with his hat-trick with little over two minutes to go. But Burger pulled one back to make it 22-17 and then, in a thrilling climax, Gio Aplan went over to make it 22-22. Basson missed the conversion and golden try time followed.
Basson kicked clear and attacked and so nearly scored, but Serevi, now on the field, calmed his side, and looked for Neumi Nanuku, who first jinxed clear and then sprinted the length of the pitch beyond the despairing Basson. Fiji’s crown, 27-22.
The Boks had earlier overwhelmed the French in their semi final, forcing Thierry Janeczek’s much improved side to play much of the game in their own half meaning that they never fully came to terms with the match and twice fell prey to the quick-fire Fabian Juries, who looks back to his impish best. Still, in Dulin, Patey, Malzieu and Boussuge, France have the players to ensure that further Cup semi finals will surely follow.
Fiji had then snuffed out any hope of a fourth consecutive Wellington title for New Zealand as Neumi Nanuku struck twice in their 26-14 semi final win, in which the ever-young Serevi played all 14 minutes – a rarity so far this season.
New Zealand captain Tafai Ioasa was again outstanding and, in the likes of Lote Raikabula, Corey Jane and Zar Lawrence, Tietjens will take players of genuine promise to Los Angeles next week.
from IRBSEVENS.COM
4 Feb 2006, 10:44 am
ag ****.
looks like the boys gave a good account of themselves though!
damn is they got that kick they would have won!
well done to the 1/2 boks anycase!
4 Feb 2006, 11:12 am
Watched the game.
Fiji looked the stronger team in the first half. SA made alot of mistakes and could not get into the game.
Second half SA played better and came back. Stephan Basson, the standout player for SA in the tournament, doing well. Basson had a conversion from about 20m wide to win the match at the end, but missed.
Extra time. SA on attack, Basson almost rounded his man to score, but was forced to touch. Fiji ran from their 22, broke out and scored, to win.
Fiji looked the physically stronger of the two teams. But SA looked like they had more pace. Every time Fiji broke, the SA speedsters hauled them in, but the good support play by Fiji saw them through to a deserved win.
4 Feb 2006, 11:28 am
A bit off topic, but here is a good article I read on SuperCricket.
Some Australians have reacted as though Gerald Majola’s threat to boycott future tours to that country because of racial abuse has come completely out of the blue.
There are two things to bear in mind. The first is that, practically, such a morally driven decision would financially bankrupt Cricket South Africa with the lost revenue from the tour being compounded by an ICC fine in the region of US$2 million.
The second thing to bear in mind is that Cricket Australia has had six weeks to put measures in place to deal with the abusers who are not part of an organised crime syndicate but feeble-minded, ignorant, uneducated slobs.
Graeme Smith and his team know all too well that it is impossible to stop the gibbering, low-class scum from shouting “******” from the stands.
But what they want is to see firm and decisive action taken when they do. They want the offenders removed – and that is possible. Very possible.
Just over a month ago, between the second and third Test matches in Melbourne and Sydney, one of the country’s most prominent newspaper sports editors asked me to write a comment piece explaining what “all the fuss” was about.
To the majority of Australians being called a “******” is no different to being called a “wanker” or a “prick”, said the editor. Could I please explain why the players were so ‘sensitive’ to a bit of ‘name calling.’
I wrote the piece, which is included below, and it was printed in every tabloid newspaper in the country, the Herald Sun, which has over four million readers – comfortably more than any other newspaper in the country.
I’m not suggesting for a moment that a comment piece in the sports pages would have an active effect on crowd behaviour, but my suggestion that South Africa’s administrators wouldn’t hesitate to take the team home if racist abuse continued should have rung a few alarm bells at Cricket Australia.
Evidently they didn’t ring loudly enough.
South Africans with an understanding of why “******” is so insulting need not read further, but for those readers of this column who live in India, Australia, Hong Kong and the rest of the world, I hope it helps clarify the situation in case you, too, were wondering what ‘all the fuss’ is about with regarding to racial abuse in Australia.
(The article was originally published on January 1st)
Later this month, when Sri Lanka’s cricketers arrive in the country to play in the VB one-day series, will sections of the crowd welcome them with Tsunami taunts?
50,000 people died in that country during the natural disaster just over a year ago and there are still hundreds of thousands of people homeless and mourning the loss of family members. Sometimes entire families.
It wouldn’t be very sensitive mentioning the tragedy out of context, let alone shouting taunts at Marvan Atapattu and his team from the anonymity of a bucket seat in the grandstand.
But that’s the equivalent of what Graeme Smith and his players have been experiencing from time to time during this tour.
South Africa, too, has had its Tsunami but it began in 1948 and it was called Apartheid. And it was not a natural disaster, it was man-made and that makes it even worse. And like Sri Lanka’s Tsunami, it claimed many thousands of innocent lives but, just as in Sri Lanka, we can’t be sure how many because there are still people missing, buried in secret graves by an invisible force.
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years of his life in prison for fighting Apartheid and there would not have been a single day of that time when he wasn’t called a ‘******’.
The word, interestingly, originates from northern Africa where it meant ‘leader’ or ‘chief’, some of whom made ‘recruiting’ trips into sub-Saharan Africa to acquire labourers. In other words, the first slave trade. So from it’s very beginnings in ‘black’ Africa the word has had the worst connotations.
When missionaries and colonialists arrived from Europe 300 years ago to ‘tame the savages’ and introduce them to a religion which has killed more people around the world than anything else, including wars, famine and pestilence, they heard the word ‘******’ and wrote in their dictionaries that it meant ‘unbeliever’.
One thing the ‘unbelievers’ always believed, however, is that the prejudice, threats, and murders that were institutionalized in the regime under which they lived as second and third class citizens, was fundamentally wrong.
Families were separated – fathers disappeared, often forever, mothers were banished to the homelands of Transkei and Ciskei while the children, often living with grandparents barely able to support them, rose up in rebellion in school riots. And were shot by white policemen with rubber bullets. Rubber if they were lucky. Black radio commentator Zolani Boncqo, who is on this tour, had an uncle hanged for treason in 1964 and spent months in jail as a teenager, without charge.
And throughout this time in South Africa’s history the word that was most commonly recognized, by blacks and whites, as the lowest form of insult was ‘******’.
Perhaps this may explain to some Australians what “all the fuss” is about.
It has become perfectly clear that the vast majority of Australian cricket watchers had little idea what the ‘k word’ meant, or had even heard of it a month ago. And it hardly takes a genius to conclude that it was probably ex-South Africans in Perth who started it. Unfortunately, that makes absolutely no difference.
The new South Africa is better off without sour, twisted individuals who lived privileged lifestyles as part of an oppressive minority and couldn’t adjust to the arrival of democracy. Sadly for Australia, it is South Africa that has gained from their departure, not this country.
Not that all émigrés from the Republic are ‘old school’ or disillusioned, far from it. Many have simply chosen to live in Australia because it is a beautiful country, offers career opportunities and is largely free from the side-effects – mostly crime – of unemployment and an education system that was originally designed to cater for a third of the population. And they are valued contributors to this fine country.
But, to a visitor every four years, it does appear that things are changing. The racially charged riots in Cronulla came as a shock soon after the team arrived and the multi-cultural diversity which Australia has rightly been so proud of for many generations appears under attack from a right wing fringe.
Perhaps it is the presence of the Union flag on Australia’s, but the national emblem now appears to carry an element of Britain’s National Front about it. Chants of ‘Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie’ used to be an innocent display of harmless patriotism at cricket grounds. Now they sound like a defiant challenge to anyone who dare not be a dinkum, Waltzing Matilda ‘chuck a prawn on the barbie’ Aussie.
If the racist taunts aimed at South African players were started by a few of their disillusioned former countrymen, it is important for Australians to understand how offensive they are and help stamp them out.
And to prove that this country will not become a haven for Caucasian supremacists.
Just as Australians, presumably, would not tolerate inflammatory taunts to Sri Lankans about the tragedy that struck their country, they should not tolerate taunts about the curse that afflicted South Africa for so long.
People of all colours and creeds are trying heal wounds there and they do not expect to have them agitated here.
The Cricket Board in South Africa is administered by men and women who never had the chance to represent their country in the sport they love.
There is nothing they can do about that now except make sure that future generations aren’t denied the basic rights they were.
England captain Douglas Jardine probably never thought for a moment that relations the two countries could become so strained over his ‘leg theory’ in the Bodyline series of 1932 that governments would become involved and future tours be cast in doubt.
The feeble-minded under-classes of Australian society can’t possibly be expected to understand the potential consequences of their actions but Cricket Australia seem to. It is to be hoped that their actions are as strong as their words.
The United Cricket Board of South Africa has now issued two statements saying racism “will not be tolerated under any circumstances.” You’ll never hear it from anyone on tour, and it may sound like an earthquake in a teacup reaction, but the men who run the game in South Africa will consider withdrawing the team from the tour if racism continues.
Question Andre Nel’s parentage and sexuality all day, if it’s good for a laugh. And remind all the players that you know what single men do for gratification on tour when their wives are back home. South African crowds will do the same over there next month.
All sportsmen need a thick skin. But it doesn’t matter what colour it is. As Makhaya Ntini said: “You can swear at me, you can tell me my Mum is a so-and-so, but when it comes to those words nobody can take it. As South Africans we are united now. We are singing one song and we play sport with one heart.”
4 Feb 2006, 11:49 am
but will they have the balls to go through with this????
4 Feb 2006, 12:07 pm
Yeah Right
Who cares Rich
4 Feb 2006, 12:11 pm
India have hijacked the future tours program, no action will be taken.
Who cares enough to take a stand.
Forget the petty side show – who the **** runs CRICKET?
4 Feb 2006, 12:12 pm
Answer
MONEY
4 Feb 2006, 12:25 pm
Oh by the way,
Friggin good effort in the final of the 7′s.
While the drama of the the match suggested it could have gone either way, I believe the Fijian’s were destined to win.
4 Feb 2006, 12:31 pm
Van die onderwerp af: In watter liga is ons in Fantasy rugby? Muppits?
4 Feb 2006, 12:38 pm
Muppit leaugue “Nie muppits nie”
4 Feb 2006, 12:40 pm
Thanks RedCard…
4 Feb 2006, 13:11 pm
good result this, SA seem to be improving all the time in the è’s game, also argentina are making huge strides forward, they annihilated us in the pool stage and the kiwis in george.
4 Feb 2006, 16:46 pm
Hey Richard
Why can’t there be peace in the world?? What the f@ck has that got to with rugby 7′s.
And how do you know that it was definitely Aussies hurling abuse and not some ex-SA scum? Last time i checked, ****** and boetie as in “kaffirboetie” that some of the white SA playersw were alledgedly called are not common terms in the Aus vocabularly hence the security not even picking it up in Perth.
All i really care about is beating the convicts (or am i not allowed to call them that?)and Smith and his band of pussies not rolling over and playing dead as usual.
4 Feb 2006, 22:01 pm
Richard Marais
Good piece- would like to discuss it with you offline.
Pls mail me at oranje_orakel@hotmail.com
5 Feb 2006, 01:45 am
South Africa did very well in the final. But far too often the experienced SA try-scorers like Fabian Juries dotted down immediately they crossed the try-line way out wide and they made no attempt to bring the ball in a bit and dot down closer to the posts for those extra two points for the conversion. Had they done so, SA might have got the two points when the scores were locked up 22-22 after the final hooter and they could have won 24-22 with no extra time having to be played.
5 Feb 2006, 07:15 am
keo/tackler are the hits a bit slow.trying a different aproach with your alias actually saying somthing good about SA Rugby?Farkin fafafini shagger.
5 Feb 2006, 11:46 am
TheTackler how true. Its the firstr sence you have ever spoken lol.
I notice that all the time, why not think a bit and get closer to the poles? I would love one of the players to answer that question.
5 Feb 2006, 13:54 pm
I always call it exactly as I see it. Sometimes you may agree and other times you may disagree. Either way, it doesn’t really matter to me. See?
6 Feb 2006, 09:20 am
Don’t feed the ******!
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