Fiji beat Kenya to win its second Cup final of the Sevens World Series season as South Africa took bronze over the USA in Vancouver, Canada, on Sunday.
The Fijians' 31-12 victory saw them finish the HSBC Canada Sevens unbeaten and move to second place, overtaking New Zealand in the 2018 series standings. Meanwhile, the USA followed up its historic weekend in Las Vegas by losing 29-7 to South Africa in the third-place game.
The thrilling final was the second meeting between Fiji and Kenya this weekend, as the two sides went head-to-head in Pool C on day one. Fiji took the spoils in that match with a closely contested 24-21 scoreline.
The final on day two followed Fiji’s victories over Argentina (43-7) in the quarterfinal and South Africa (15-12) in the semifinal, but it was Kenya that was first on the scoreboard with a try from Willy Ambaka. Fiji responded through Josua Vakurunabili and by halftime both sides had added another to draw even at 12-12 at the break.
Fiji dominated the second half with three further tries, Sevuloni Mocenacagi adding to his first-half score to secure a brace and the HSBC Player of the Final title.
Highlights: @fijirugby put on a show to claim victory at the #Canada7s pic.twitter.com/Muvppiuf6r
— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) March 12, 2018
After the full-time whistle, Fiji head coach Gareth Baber was pleased with their final performance and the two days as a whole.
"There’s a real sense of pride more than anything today," he said. "We handled ourselves well across the weekend to get to a final with Kenya, who we’d had a tough battle with yesterday. It was very close at the break, we hadn’t really played much at halftime but the team responded in the second half and produced the rugby that we now Fiji can and it was great to watch."
The USA, meanwhile, seemed to hit a wall after winning gold in Las Vegas last week. After the Eagles played brilliantly to shut out New Zealand 17-0 (0-0 at halftime), the long series of defensive work started to wear on the Americans. Perry Baker and Carlin Isles began to work some tries together, not separately, but a 24-19 loss to Kenya ended the USA's push for a second straight series title.
With the score tied 19-19, Kenya turned the ball over and raced to the corner to win the game. But Kenya never released the tackled player in the breakdown and should have been penalized. The pass to set up the try also appeared a shade forward. However, there were no calls — Kenya won and the USA was done.
The Eagles had a chance to win the game but gave up the ball and the winning try at the death. By the time the bronze final came around, the players seemed to be feeling the stress and intensity of 12 winner-take-all games in two weeks.
For the USA, fourth place was good enough to get another two points difference over England in the standings (USA is in sixth place and England is in seventh) and to inch closer to Argentina in fifth overall.
South Africa leads the standings, with Fiji in second. New Zealand is a distant third and Australia sits in fourth.