SCOTLAND Men ended up in sixth place at the Commonwealth Games Sevens this evening, equalling their best-ever previous performance. Scotland Women, competing in the Games for the first time, also came sixth in their competition.
Having lost their quarter-final to South Africa on Saturday, the men’s squad began the day with a morale-boosting 22-12 win over Kenya in the fifth-place semi-final. Unconverted tries from Jordan Edmunds and Kaleem Barreto gave them a 10-0 half-time lead, and although Kenya hit back early in the second half to go 12-10 up, a strong showing in the last couple of minutes took the Scots through.
A try by Harvey Elms regained the lead with around half a minute left, and Barreto converted to make it 17-12. That still left the Kenyans with the chance to snatch victory if they scored a converted try in the last play, but Ross McCann seized on a loose ball from the restart to run in his team’s fourth try of the game and secure the win.
There was a similar pattern to this evening’s fifth-place final against Samoa, who scored either side of a Robbie Fergusson try to take a 12-5 lead at the interval. A try from Femi Sofolarin and a conversion by Barreto drew the Scots level, then the two repeated the feat to make it 19-12. But Samoa had the legs when it counted, and two late tries, one converted, gave them the win 24-19.
“We came into this tournament saying we wanted to do something special, and we articulated that as a medal,” men’s captain Jamie Farndale said. “It still feels like we’ve done something special. I’ve been in rugby sevens for a very long time and that’s one of the most enjoyable weeks I’ve ever been a part of.”
Scotland Women only had one game to play today, the fifth-place final against England, after a comfortable win over Sri Lanka in their fifth-place semi-final on Saturday night. They were well in contention at half-time at 7-5 down after Chloe Rollie scored, but in the second half it was all England, who scored four more tries and a conversion to win 29-5.
“Highs and lows – I suppose that’s the nature of sevens,” women’s head coach Scott Forrest said when asked to sum up the three days of competition. “Day 1 was a tough day – we lost to two teams that went on to play for the gold medal.
“Yesterday was a good day for us. We performed well and we were quite clinical.
“England was a big game, a big occasion in front of a very noisy crowd. As an experience for the players it was brilliant, but obviously we’d have liked to perform better in our last game. We didn’t play our best rugby, we made a few errors in the first half, then they won the moments in the second half.
“We know we’ve been part of something special as this group. I think we gave a good showing.”