Cook Islands cause major upset

by RugbyFanz

Day one of the IRB Wellington Sevens on Friday saw lots of action as the rugby minnows Cook Islands and the USA Eagles caused the first upsets of the tournament. Series leaders New Zealand were impressive and racked up wins against Samoa, Canada and Papua New Guinea to secure themselves a place in the Cup quarter-finals against Wales. The other Cup quarter-finals are: Fiji v Samoa, South Africa v Tonga, Scotland v Australia.

Earlier, the Cook Islands beat a strong England side 21-17. The islanders were led by Koiatu Koiatu who gave his side a 21-5 lead. England's Ben Gollings and Danny Care started the come back but it was left too late.

The 34,000 strong Wellington crowd at the Westpac stadium were dressed up and in festive mood. In the first match, the Eagles beat Argentina 17-7. Mike Palefau scored two tries for the USA. It was not a good day for the Pumas who lost their second game when Tonga came from behind to win 19-17. USA managed a 7-7 draw against Scotland later in the day.

In the other pool games, New Zealand cruised to a comfortable 42-0 win against Canada and last year's winners Samoa dotted down four times against Papa New Guinea winning 22-0. South Africa sevens' star Fabian Jurie was in good form scoring two tries during the Springboks 24-14 win against Australia. Kenya won convincingly 19-0 against France, while the Wallabies had no problem beating Kenya 19-0 later in the afternoon.