Rhodri McAtee, Tal Selley and Aled Thomas scored tries at Murrayfield in a victory which drastically reduced Fiji’s chances of winning a second successive IRB Sevens Series title.
Fiji can now only get a maximum eight points from the Scotland tournament if they lift the Plate, and they will be hoping Wales can produce another impressive performance to beat New Zealand in the semis later this afternoon. Wales were particularly well organised and heroic in defence, keeping Fiji and star man William Ryder at bay.
Penzance’s Rhodri McAtee opened the scoring, chasing his own chip to touch down under the posts with Aled Thomas converting. Fiji came back with a close range try from veteran Waisale Serevi to make it 7-7 at half time but Wales showed determination and scored twice after the break, Aled Thomas again adding the conversions.
Tal Selley, who has been outstanding on the Sevens circuit throughout the season, got on the scoreboard when, from the back of a line out on the Fijian twenty-two metre line, he ghosted through the Fijian defence to score. Aled Thomas then took the lead to 21-7 after finishing off another excellent attack two minutes later.
Fiji came back with a try and conversion, bringing them back to within a score of Wales and again threatened the Welsh try line on full time but although Naevo crossed the line in the right hand corner to set up a crucial conversion attempt, he knocked the ball on for an historic Welsh Sevens win.
Head Coach Dai Rees said: “It’s been a fantastic couple of weeks for us as a squad. Getting to two consecutive cup semi-finals means we will be seeded in the top four when we go to Dubai and George next season which shows just how far we’ve come. The boys died for each other out there, putting Fiji under pressure in attack and defence. It will be difficult against New Zealand but the boys will be up for it as they always are.”
