Fiji on brink of World Series crown after Glasgow triumph
Runners-up New Zealand join Pacific islanders and South Africa in guaranteeing their places at next year’s Olympics
Fiji won the Glasgow Sevens, the penultimate round of this season’s HSBC Sevens World Series, by coming from behind to beat New Zealand 24-17 in Sunday's final in Scotland.
But there was a silver lining for New Zealand in that their run to the final helped them secure a place at next year’s Olympics in Rio, where sevens will make its Games debut.
Apisai Domolailai came off the bench to score two second-half tries, with Fiji coming from 12-5 down at the break to win their fourth Sevens title this season.
We have put ourselves in a great position to win our first World Series in 10 years
Victory also saw the Pacific islanders move ahead of South Africa in the race for the overall Sevens World Series title, having earlier beaten the Blitzboks 15-0 in their quarter-final.
The top four teams at the end of this season will qualify automatically for next year’s Olympics in Brazil.
Saturday’s results saw Fiji and South Africa book their Olympic places and New Zealand joined them on Sunday.
Fiji will now head south to London leading the overall standings on 147 points, with South Africa second on 142 and New Zealand third on 139.
England are in the box seat to gain the fourth and final automatic Olympic place as they have 117 points compared to Australia’s 101, with the 16-point lead highly unlikely to be overturned in London.
Delighted Fiji coach Ben Ryan said: “This is the most amount of [tournament] wins – four – that we’ve done in one season.
“We have put ourselves in a great position to win our first World Series in 10 years. We have a fit team and we want to win back-to-backs,” the Englishman added.
“The World Series was important but qualification for the Olympics was the goal,” said Tietjens.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to finish in that top four so to know we’re there is really pleasing and you can start seeing yourself going to Rio now.”
Australia lost 14-7 to the USA in the quarter-finals and then went down 21-12 to South Africa in the plate semi-final at a wet Scotstoun Stadium.
If Australia finish the season in fifth, they will play in the regional Oceania qualifying tournament in Auckland on November 14-15, with the winning team booking their ticket to Rio.
“Going into the game against the USA we were very confident and played well in patches,” said Australia coach Geraint John.
“However, we shot ourselves in the foot by turning the ball over too many times and handing them two tries from around 100 metres out which is particularly disappointing,” the Welshman added.
