The Flying Fijians are the Rugby World Cup 7s Champions defeating the All Blacks 7s by 29-12 in the final before a sold out Cape Town crowd on Monday morning (Fiji/Samoa Time).
It took Fiji just 30 seconds for Joseva Talacolo to cross the line and open Fiji’s World Cup Final accounts.
Fiji went on to score five tries, four of those in the first half. Prior to that, New Zealand had only allowed two tries to breach their defensive line in their first three matches.
Fiji dominated the Cup Final with New Zealand only managing two tries.
The Pacific Islanders’ defensive line was unbreakable by the All Blacks who found themselves trailing the entire match.
“This is huge for Fiji,” coach Ben Gollings told SuperSport TV after the final.
“The boys have been fantastic. We can score tries but we also have to stop them and it was a huge defensive performance.”
After the game All Blacks 7s captain Sione Molia said New Zealand were missing a few players.
“We’re a few soldiers down, but we did really well to get to where we are and slog out a good battle against Fiji”.
Currently third in the HSBC 7s series, Fiji never looked threatened by opposing sides at the World Cup and were clearly the best team in Cape Town.
The two-time Olympic Champions annihilated World 7s Series Champions Australia by 38-14 in the semi-final and defeated their Pacific brothers Samoa by 21-10 in the quarters.
It was Fiji’s third world title, but their first since 2005. Fiji had also won the Rugby 7s world cup in 1997. New Zealand had won the previous two editions in 2013 and 2018.
