Rugby Sevens: O’Donnell, Mikkelson Star as New Zealand Win in Wellington

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at Internationaled.org

Published: February 6, 2011

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Youngster Declan O'Donnell was the star of the show on Saturday night as a rampant New Zealand team won their fifth Wellington Sevens tournament, dispatching England 29-14 in the final.

New Zealand looked the goods the whole weekend, after seeing off challenges from Scotland, Papua New Guinea and Argentina during pool play on Day One, with Frank Halai being particularly devastating, touching down for three tries against Argentina.

They progressed on to Day Two, where they would comprehensively beat Wales and Australia en route to yet another final in front of their home crowd.

Fiji were sublime during Day One, but a red card to their danger man Seremaia Borutu in their quarterfinal threw a spanner into the works and Samoa were able to sneak past their more fancied opposition.

England entered the tournament as favourites on the back of a win in the last leg of the World Series in George. After an early scare from the Cook Islands, they progressed through to their quarter- then semifinal without any further troubles.

But the semifinal saw them come up against the high-flying Samoans and hung on by the skin of their teeth to win 7-5, a result that could have been reversed had it not been for a cruel bounce of the ball for Samoa in the last play of the game. 

This made way for a New Zealand-England final, a match that New Zealand would enter as red-hot favourites against an England side who had looked shaky in their last game.

But it was the English who drew first blood, with a try under the post to take the score to 7-nil very early on in the piece. The try would come as a double blow for New Zealand, as their inspirational caption, DJ Forbes, was forced to leave the field after sustaining an injury during the process of it being scored.

This was a huge blow and would see youngster Solomon King enter the game to fill the shoes of New Zealand's hard man.

They...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Rugby Union

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