Samoa avenge Australia defeat at Tokyo Sevens

AFP/Tokyo

Samoa avenged their loss to Australia in last year’s Tokyo Sevens final yesterday, beating the defending champions 26-14 to progress to the quarter-finals of this year’s event.

Samoa, third in the series standings behind New Zealand and Fiji, scored four tries through Levi Asifa’amatala, Faatoina Autagavaia, Reupena Levasa and Tulolo Tulolo.

“It wasn’t an easy game. Australia are a good team,” Samoa’s Afa Aiono said, adding that for the next match “we have to take ourselves to another level”.

The result means Samoa finish top of Pool D with three wins, earning a last-eight clash against Pool A runners-up South Africa today. New Zealand, Fiji and Scotland all finished top of their groups. Series leaders New Zealand defeated France 26-7, Canada 22-12, and Japan 41-5 and will play Pool B runners-up United States in the next round.

Tim Mikkelson scored his 101st try in the win over France while Sherwin Stowers scored a hat-trick against Japan.

“It was good to win three games,” New Zealand’s Belgium Tuatagaloa said. “The toughest game was against Japan. They were very forward and quick, and they are good team.” Fiji defeated South Africa, Spain and Portugal for a place against Australia.

Scotland drew with the United States 12-12, and enjoyed wins over Wales 12-10 and Kenya 12-0 to set up a tie against France.

The Tokyo Sevens is the seventh leg of the nine-round Rugby World Sevens Series.

London: Jonny Wilkinson says he sought the advice of Toulon teammates Matt Giteau and Frederik Michalak before targeting a further season at the French Top 14 club.

The 33-year-old England World Cup winner was seriously considering bringing an end to his playing career when his contract with the French club ran out at the end of this campaign due to a long standing groin problem. But Wilkinson told The Times yesterday that encouragement from Giteau and Michalak and following a successful operation has tipped the balance in favour of signing a new contract.

Discussing his recent operation in The Times, Wilkinson said: “I didn’t know if it was going to work, but it has given me the ability to go out and work hard, to recover and go again.

“From November through to January, I was thinking: end of career.”

Wilkinson said the views of Toulon fly-half stars Australian Giteau and France’s Michalak were taken into account before he decided to play on at the club he joined in 2009.