Wales Win the IRB Sevens Rugby World Cup
Welsh Beat Argentina to Lift the Melrose Cup in Dubai
Wales, ranked a lowly 11th in the world, had never made a main final in the 10 year history of the International Rugby Board 7’s circuit and didn’t look like improving that statistic when they lost 14-0 to Argentina in the pool phase. Luckily for them, other results went their way and they narrowly qualified as one of the best runners up.
Wales Played All Blacks Next
This gave Wales a difficult quarter final against pre-tournament favourites New Zealand. Wales had recently beaten the All Blacks in their home tournament, but no one was expecting lightning to strike twice. The game was going to form, with New Zealand leading 14-10 late in the second half, when Tom Isaacs scored the key try, giving Wales the 15-14 win and a semi final meeting with Samoa.
Samoa qualified for the semi finals by beating heavily fancied England, a result which had their coach doing cartwheels at the final whistle. Beating Wales in two senior Rugby World Cups has given Samoa a reputation as Wales’ nemesis, but tries from Aled Brew, Tal Selley and Tom Isaacs again helped see the Welsh through 19-12
Wales v Argentina Final
In the final, Wales faced undefeated Argentina who had comfortably beaten them in the pool stage. Argentina were another team not expected to get so far in the competition, despite winning the USA leg of the IRB Sevens circuit, two weeks earlier.
Wales started well, taking the kick off and patiently maintaining possession for the first two minutes before Richie Pugh spotted a gap and scored in the corner. Aled Thomas missed the difficult conversion.
The Pumas Took the Lead Through Rodiguez
Argentina struck back quickly with Martin Rodriquez stripping the ball in a tackle and racing fifty yards to score in the corner. He then converted his own try from the corner with a superb kick to put Argentina 7-5 ahead.
The Pumas were looking dangerous at this time and had two tries disallowed by Australian referee, Andrew Rees, but it was Wales who scored next, ‘man of the tournament’, Tal Selley making an outside break to score under the posts. Aled Thomas converted this time to give Wales the lead at the break.
The second half saw Argentina increase the pace of the game and they were rewarded with a try in the corner after a cross kick. Rodriguez missed the conversion and the match was level at 12-12. With time running out, the contest became very cagey. Unusually for 7’s, tactical kicking became the order of the day with both teams afraid to make a mistake.
London Welsh's Aled Thomas Scored for Wales
Eventually, with seconds left on the clock, Aled Thomas broke from a ruck and scored near the posts, diving over with a flourish. A few seconds later, the final whistle blew and the Welsh celebrated while the arena rung to the sound of the Tom Jones hit ‘Delilah’.
This may be one of the last times that the Melrose Cup is competed for. Rugby 7's has been recommended for the 2016 Olympics and this may replace the Cup as the premier tournament in World Sevens.
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