AFTER six tournaments without a point, Scotland finished the IRB World Sevens Series with back-to-back semi-final appearances and players cursing the fact they had failed to topple the newly crowned series champions.
That in itself was a measure of how far Scotland have come in the sevens world in the past fortnight. The nation has struggled to find a place in the world's top ten in the full 15-a-side game over the past year, slipping to 11th behind Fiji, but in
a fortnight Stevie Gemmell's sevens team have risen from 16th in the world to push among the top four two weeks in a row.
What that does to the bigger picture of Scottish rugby remains open to question. Most of the players on show over the weekend hope to not be available next season due to playing professional rugby for Edinburgh or Glasgow, and Gemmell will have to start over again, but living with some of the most skilled rugby players on the planet will certainly not harm the confidence of these talented Scots.
South Africa ultimately ended the domination of New Zealand in the world series by securing the point they needed to claim the 2008-9 crown, only the third team after the Kiwis and Fiji to win it, but even they had to accept second in the sun-baked Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens as Fiji claimed the last leg of the series.
It was fitting that the best two sevens sides in the world concluded the event in the final and Fiji's 20-19 win also pushed the South Sea Islanders into second place in the series, edging England into third. For a few minutes, however, Murrayfield believed that Stevie Gemmell's Scotland team might just appear in their first-ever final by dumping the South Africans out.
Tries by Sean Lamont took Scotland into the lead then pulled them level again at 14-14 with the South Africans in their thrilling semi-final before the Scotland wing combined with Greig Laidlaw to send the scrum-half under the posts. With two minutes remaining, however, the Scots lost a lineout close to the South African line and it proved decisive as what could have been a 14-point lead was turned back to a level final scoreline as Ryno Benjamin, one of several South African flyers, latched onto a chip to touch down.
The whistle blew shortly after and we were into the only 'golden try' match of the weekend. The South Africans pressed the Scots into the 22 and exploited an uncharacteristic loose pass from Colin Gregor with the speed of a cheetah, grasping possession and holding it until a chink of daylight appeared for Gio Aplon to sprint through and touch down.
It was a cruel finish for a Scotland side superbly marshalled by Gregor, Laidlaw and Scott Forrest, in which Roddy Grant, John Houston and Allister Hogg excelled, but signalled the difference in finishing at the highest level.
It did not detract from the Scots' quality throughout the event, the superb 33-17 beating of an England side that had won the Twickenham tournament in their opening match on Saturday a terrific start and, though they lost to the Kenyans, good wins over Canada in the pool and then Samoa in yesterday's quarter-final, results earned through a combination of strong defensive skills and good finishing.
If XVs rugby hinges on small margins, then Scotland underlined just how precarious its little brother is. Gemmell's side qualified for the semi-finals only after Houston had scored his second try with the last play of the game, but luck was not with them at the end of the next tie.
Wales had also flown the flag for the home nations with a fine surge to the semi-finals, but there their challenge ended with a more comprehensive defeat to Fiji, which left the big guns of southern hemisphere sevens to take the stage at the finish.
By then the USA had claimed the shield, England taken the bowl and New Zealand the plate in the also-rans finals, but the main event ensured those remaining of the 11,000 crowd were royally entertained. Fiji gripped the final in the first half to lead 15-7 at the break and scored immediately on the restart, and then held off a South African comeback to win 20-19.
That provided a satisfying denouement to a world sevens series in which South Africa have shown the rest that there is hope, that New Zealand and Fiji can be beaten over the course of eight tournaments, and left others, like the Scots, clutching a new belief that the IRB sevens stage can provide an outlet to success for nations where global domination in the more familiar 15-a-side game is a hopeful dream.
The full article contains 819 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
