Wednesday 11 December 2013

Cell C Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens

This past weekend was round three of the HSBC Sevens World Series, and the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth pulled out all the stops to make it a memorable one. Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium has been hosting this event for the last three years since 2011.

In 2011, New Zealand beat South Africa in the Cup Final 31 - 26. Samoa took third place by beating England 17 - 14. Wales beat Fiji in the Plate, Scotland beat Canada in the Bowl and Zimbabwe beat Kenya in the Shield. South Africa finished their pool stages with a clean slate and scoring 104 points, New Zealand scored 125 points and conceded 7. Over the 45 matches played, 257 tries were scored with Frank Halai from New  Zealand being the top try scorer with 10 tries. New Zealanders Junior Tomasi Cama and Frank Halai was also the top points scorers with 50 points each.   

In 2012, New Zealand again won the Cup, this time beating France 47 - 12. After losing to New Zealand in the semi-finals, South Africa played Argentina beating them 35 - 0 to take Third place. In a repeat of the previous year's final, Wales beat Fiji to win the Plate final. Australia won the Bowl final by beating Samoa and Spain beat Zimbabwe in the Shield final. South Africa finished top of the pool scoring 58 points and conceding 19. Cup Winners New Zealand ended second behind Fiji in their pool, scoring 50 and conceding 38 points. Over the 45 games played, 235 tries were scored with Kurt Baker topping the tries column with 8. Baker was also the top points scorer with 40 points.  

For the last two years New Zealand had the favour of the crowd with back to back Cup trophies, but 2013 South Africa had a different motivation. The crowd also played their part in coming out in numbers to support the Blitz Bokke, 26 908 on the Saturday and 30 860 on the Sunday to watch South Africa beat New Zealand 17 - 14 in the Cup final. 

Samoa beat Argentina 21 - 7 to take Third place, Fiji took the Plate after beating France, England beat Australia in the Bowl final and Scotland beat Canada in the Shield final. Both South Africa and New Zealand conceded two tries during the round robin matches with South Africa scoring 89 points with 15 tries and New Zealand scoring 120 points with 22 tries. Australia's Shannon Walker was the top try scorer with 9 tries, the closest South Africans were, team captain Kyle Brown, Branco du Preez and Werner Kok on 4 a piece and Justin Geduld on 3. 

After Sundays win the Blitz Bokke moved back to no 2 on the series standings, two points behind New Zealand on 58 and a comfortable 8 points ahead of no 3, Fiji.

New Zealand have won the most titles since the IRB Sevens World Series started in 1999, with a total of 11, they are also the current holders of the title. Only 3 other countries have managed to take this title away from New Zealand, Fiji won in 2005/06, South Africa in 2008/09 and Samoa in 2009/10. New Zealand is also leading the overall table after 14 season on 137.07 points with Fiji second on 116.28 points and South Africa third on 95.92 points.

All time top try scorers are Santiago Gomez Cora  from Argentina with 230 tries, Ben Gollings from England on 220 and Fabian Juries from South Africa on 179. Active players are Collings Injera from Kenya in forth with 167 tries, Tomasi Cama from New Zealand in sixth on 145 tries and Dan Norton from England seventh on 143 tries. The top active points scorer for South Africa is Cecil Afrika in 9th place on 820. Frankie Horne is 8th on the list of most appearances, 51.

Round 4 will take the teams to Las Vegas, where South Africa will share Pool A with Kenya, Wales and Canada.   

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