All Blacks shine indoors to claim inaugural Canada Sevens

REUTERS: New Zealand beat South Africa 19-14 to capture the inaugural Canada Sevens in Vancouver on Sunday and close the gap on Fiji at the top of the World Series standings after their third win of the campaign.

Sam Dickson, Kurt Baker and Lewis Ormond all scored tries as the All Blacks put behind the disappointment of last week’s quarter-final defeat by the same opponents in Las Vegas to claim the first Sevens Series event played under a closed roof.

“We struggled last week in Vegas with the new team, getting our combinations together but this week we really wanted to go better and I am just so pleased we won the final because it has been a hard week,” New Zealand Captain Tim Mikkelson said.

“We let ourselves down last week and dropped down the table and we really wanted to finish strong in this tournament. It’s amazing to win this in this amazing venue in Canada, it’s just been awesome.”

Reigning Sevens Series champions Fiji, who finished fourth in Vancouver after losing to South Africa in the semifinals and Australia in the third place playoff, lead the standings on 106 points with four rounds remaining.

South Africa, known as the “blitzbokke”, are second on 105 points after collecting 19 for their efforts at BC Place, where 60,418 fans attended over the two days.

The All Blacks, who have won 12 of the 16 editions of the Sevens Series, collected their third 22 point haul after wins in Wellington and Sydney to move on to 104, with Australia in a distant fourth on 90.

Samoa, beaten by New Zealand in the Cup quarter-finals, went on to win the second tier Plate competition with a 31-19 win over the United States, who are fifth in the standings.

Home fans were given something to cheer with Canada beating France to take the Bowl, while Russia grabbed the Shield after edging Portugal.

The Sevens Series now heads to Asia with Hong Kong hosting the seventh leg on April 8-10 before Singapore makes its debut a week later.