Canada women suffer first rugby loss to Fiji

Earlier, Fiji beat Australia 19-12 in the quarter-finals, and New Zealand 19-5 in the semi-finals respectively. The Kiwis were back to their best in the opening half as they raced into a 12-point lead after fine work from Portia Woodman and then Gayle Broughton.

Australia were forced to play the Cup Final with only ten players available with forwards Sharni Williams (knee) and Chloe Dalton (arm) ruled out.

Vodafone Fiji 7s coach Ben Ryan says the team is yet to reach their full potential.

Samoa hit back soon after the restart with Tila Mealoi haring across to go under the posts. It is unclear if any are in doubt for the second round of he world series in Cape Town next week.

It is the first time Fiji have beaten England in a World Sevens Series final.

Fiji’s aforementioned, dominant win over the Argentinians saw them top their group and they will now face Australia, whose 21-5 reverse to England saw their triumphant opponents head off on a path towards the Pumas instead.

“We’ve had some close games in the past, and some not so close games, but I think the standard of the competition today has shown that it doesn’t really matter who you are playing tomorrow”.

Fiji got off to a flying start with nine tries scored by nine different players in a 63-14 rout of Canada before beating Japan 21-17 and Argentina 28-0.

“We scored a lot of points and our defence on the whole was OK, with a couple of soft tries conceded”.

Trailing 12-7 when the buzzer sounded Perry Baker popped up with his second of the match in the corner to draw the scores level before captain Madison Hughes stepped up to slot the conversion and knock France out in the process, with New Zealand topping Pool C.

“We haven’t fully revealed our hand as yet”. I felt we developed and were getting to what we were after, by the end of the England game.

Jerry Tuwai of Fiji, top, is lifted by Jasa Veremalua as Ed Jenkins of Australia, center right, contests in the Quarter Final during the second day of the Sevens World Series rugby tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015.

South Africa stole the Plate by beating Australia 19-14 in sudden death extra time of the Plate final.