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Fiji took the biscuit at the Cake Tin after New Zealand's dominant start to the International Rugby Board sevens season came to a shuddering halt at the hands of Samoa at the Wellington tournament yesterday.
Winners of the first two tournaments, New Zealand had no answer to the physically dominant Samoans in a one-sided semifinal, going down 14-24.
Fiji, meanwhile comfortably disposed of England 28-19 in the other semifinal and just clung on to a 19-14 win as the dangerous Samoans mounted a thrilling comeback from 19-7 down in the final.
The Samoans lost the ball close to the line as they sought the last-minute touchdown that would clinch the match.
Samoa, as they did to New Zealand, pressed and pressurised the Fijians successfully - even though they went down 7-0 in the first half to a typical piece of magical Fijian handling involving a dab, a pop pass and a sprint to the line by Jiuta Lutumailagi.
Samoa, whose captain Uale Mai was in superb form in this tournament, hit back with a typical kick and chase try by speedster Mikaele Pesamino for a 7-7 scoreline at halftime.
They attempted to overcome the Fijians with their physical game but the latter just had too much polish in the end.
In the second half, Fiji underlined their status as the best team in the competition, with a long-distance raid culminating in what seemed to be the game's winning try - even though there was doubt about the correct forcing of the ball - by Osea Kolinisau.
If they just fell short in the final, the semifinal was a triumph for Samoan sevens great Mai, with the captain crossing for three tries, including two in succession to seal proceedings in the second spell.
The New Zealand match was won up front by the Samoans, who were stronger at the tackle and the breakdown, allowing few opportunities for the likes of star New Zealand exponent Sherwin Stowers.
In one of Stowers' few touches, he threw a gift intercept to opposite Mikaele Pesamino, who scorched 50m. It turned around a 5-7 halftime deficit for Samoa, handing them a lead they weren't to relinquish.
Experienced New Zealand forwards such as captain DJ Forbes and Lote Raikabula were uncharacteristically poor on defence, something acknowledged by the skipper.
"There were too many crucial errors, two clear ones [missed tackles] by myself were very disappointing," Forbes said.
"Obviously the boys are shattered," he said.
"Well done to the Samoans, they really stuck to their guns and punished us."
New Zealand scored a try in each half.
The first was an opportunistic 60m effort by Tim Mikkelson, who was a surprise starter ahead of veteran Zar Lawrence. The second was a last-minute consolation to Kurt Baker.
"We'll just have to sit down and have a look at the video. We had a few personnel changes and maybe the boys weren't ready," Forbes said.
"There's no excuses, it's a heart-breaking feeling in front of our family and friends."
Gaps had started to appear in New Zealand's game earlier yesterday during their 24-12 quarterfinal defeat of Australia.
The tournament hosts didn't pay the full price for some shabby defensive work, allied with mixed option-taking, advancing to the final four courtesy of a late Mikkelson try.
Until then, an upset was on after Australia crossed midway through each half via Patrick McCutcheon and Bernard Foley. New Zealand relied on the scoring foundation set by Stowers, whose blistering speed set up the first try to Lawrence and created the second for himself inside four minutes.
The try of the match was scored on the stroke of halftime by Raikabula, off some coherent team interplay which was too often missing during a stuttering New Zealand effort.
Other quarterfinal results saw Samoa beat Kenya 14-12, England thump first-day surprise packets Canada 31-0 and Fiji overrun South Africa 21-5.
- NZPA
