Fiji swept all before them to win gold yesterday at the World Games Rugby Sevens, retaining the title they won four years ago in an exciting tournament that saw Taiwan finish a respectable sixth out of eight teams.
The Main Stadium was turned into a mini Hong Kong as a crowd of more than 9,000 locals and foreign fans descended to cheer on their favorites.
Fiji, who had looked unimpressive a day earlier, had obviously been saving themselves, as they dominated proceedings from the start, outscoring Taiwan by four tries to one in their opening game, before comfortably beating a strong and previously undefeated South Africa in the semi-final 21-7 to set up a gold medal match with surprise finalists Portugal.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
The Taiwanese, meanwhile, quickly got over the Fiji defeat to put on a good show against Hong Kong in their second match. No. 6 Chen Chih-wei was the star, scoring both tries in an end-to-end first seven minutes to give Taiwan a 10-7 halftime lead.
Hong Kong hit back almost immediately after the break with a try in the corner to take a 12-10 lead, before Wang Jen-his got his second try of the day, breaking from the halfway line after a turnover to touch down for a 17-12 win that set up a fifth-sixth place decider with the US.
Unfortunately, Taiwan couldn’t replicate their victory over the US on Saturday, losing after a thrilling match that saw the lead change hands on three occasions.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Taiwan got off to the worst possible start, conceding two tries in the first five minutes to trail 14-0, but they put themselves right back in contention in first-half overtime as star player Chen scored under the posts after a turnover to make it 14-7 at the break.
Almost immediately after the restart, Taiwan made it 14-12 as a nice switch of passes between Chen and Wang Kuo-feng saw Wang score in the corner. The crowd then went wild as straight from the kick-off, Wang Ju-an dummied his way through the US defense to score and put Taiwan 19-14 in front.
However, they couldn’t hold out for the win as the US scored from a penalty with 90 seconds left to make the final score 21-19 and secure fifth place, pushing Taiwan into sixth.
In the final, the Fijians proved too strong and too full of running for the Portuguese, running in an impressive seven tries to win the match 43-10 and take the gold medal.
The crowd was further entertained as a streaker ran across the pitch just after the final buzzer, before the heavens opened to make for a wet medal presentation.
South Africa took the bronze medal after beating Argentina 17-0 in the third-fourth place play-off.
Japan finished seventh, while Hong Kong took the wooden spoon after losing all six matches.
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