Sevens eliminated

Press, 1 April 1985, Page 4

Sevens eliminated

NZPA Hong Kong A last minute try by the captain, Wayne Smith, was not enough to stop New Zealand crashing out in the semi-finals when it lost 10-14 to a mostly Scottish Public School Wanderers side in the Cathay Pacific-Hong Kong Bank rugby sevens yesterday. New Zealand began well when Auckland’s John Kirwan side-stepped his way around a defender and ran over 50 metres to score. From then on the New Zealanders seemed to lose their grip and found it difficult to get or retain possession, despite fielding one of the fastest sides it has put into the annual competition in which teams from 24 countries take part. Earlier Australia, after a

shaky start, beat Western Samoa — the giant killer which deposed of the defending champion Fiji — when it came back from 8-0 behind at halftime with three tries and two conversions to win 16-8. For New Zealand, the rot set in the first of the 10 minute halves when the Scotland B and under-21 hooker, Gary Callander, scored. Just 11 seconds into the second-half, Public School Wanderers scored again, when John Jeffries took advantage of a gap in the New Zealand defence. Two minutes later Callander scored again to seal the match. Australia confirmed its favouritism in the tournament when it beat Public School Wanderers 24-10 in the final.