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Argentina stun Fiji to win first World Sevens Series tournament since 2009

(Photo by DON MACKINNON/AFP via Getty Images)

Argentina have stunned Fiji to win the Vancouver Sevens, beating the Tokyo Olympics gold medallists to claim their first World Sevens Series tournament victory since 2009.

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Running in five tries to two, the Argentines were spearheaded by Marcos Moneta, his country’s star player who lit up last year’s Olympics with some dazzling footwork and impressive speed en route to Argentina’s bronze medal finish.

Moneta was one of two players who scored a brace of tries at BC Place, with the other being Felipe Del Mestre, while Santiago Vera Feld was Argentina’s only other try-scorer.

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Argentina were forced to withstand a yellow card to Tobias Wade early in the second half, during which time Fijian star Jerry Tuwai crossed for a try.

That added to the first-half try scored by Kamineli Rasaku, but that was as good as it got for Fiji, who failed to back last weekend’s win at the Singapore Sevens up with a successive title.

Argentina head coach Santi Gomez Cora was playing for his country when they last won a World Sevens Series event in San Diego 13 years ago, and the 43-year-old was ecstatic at breaking his side’s long-standing duck.

“You have to dream because the dreams come true. I can’t believe it. I searched for this for nine years as a coach and I can’t believe it,” Gomez Cora said. “The Olympics first and now this. I’m so happy and so proud of these guys.”

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Gomez Cora added that winning tournaments as both a player and a coach was a special achievement in his rugby career.

“I did it as a player and my dream after being a player was to do it was a coach. The dream has come true,” Gomez Cora said.

“We worked very hard to arrive here. The players gave everything everyday in Argentina, here and at the tournaments. It’s not easy for us, we have a lot of trials but it’s enough. We won.”

Elsewhere, Australia beat Samoa in the bronze final, while South Africa toppled New Zealand to take fifth place and remain at the summit of the World Sevens Series standings ahead of next month’s event in Toulouse.

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1 Comment
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isaac 980 days ago

Thoroughly deserved...its tough playing up tempo rugby and to do it back to back in two different continents and time difference and jet lag and all...all teams participating at the 7a tournaments in Singapore and Canada need to hold their heads high

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Tom 6 hours ago
What is the future of rugby in 2025?

Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol!


It's incredible to see the boys playing like this. Back to the form that saw them finish on top of the regular season and beat Toulon to win the challenge cup. Ibitoye and Ravouvou doing a cracking Piutau/Radradra impression.


It's abundantly clear that Borthwick and Wigglesworth need to transform the England attack and incorporate some of the Bears way. Unfortunately until the Bears are competing in Europe, the old criticisms will still be used.. we failed to fire any punches against La Rochelle and Leinster which goes to show there is still work to do but both those sides are packed full of elite players so it's not the fairest comparison to expect Bristol to compete with them. I feel Bristol are on the way up though and the best is yet to come. Tom Jordan next year is going to be obscene.


Test rugby is obviously a different beast and does Borthwick have enough time with the players to develop the level of skill the Bears plays have? Even if he wanted to? We should definitely be able to see some progress, Scotland have certainly managed it. England aren't going to start throwing the ball around like that but England's attack looks prehistoric by comparison, I hope they take some inspiration from the clarity and freedom of expression shown by the Bears (and Scotland - who keep beating us, by the way!). Bristol have the best attack in the premiership, it'd be mad for England to ignore it because it doesn't fit with the Borthwick and Wigglesworth idea of how test rugby should be played. You gotta use what is available to you. Sadly I think England will try reluctantly to incorporate some of these ideas and end up even more confused and lacking identity than ever. At the moment England have two teams, they have 14 players and Marcus Smith. Marcus sticks out as a sore thumb in a team coached to play in a manner ideologically opposed to the way he plays rugby, does the Bears factor confuse matters further? I just have no confidence in Borthers and Wiggles.


Crazy to see the Prem with more ball in play than SR!

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J
JW 10 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

In another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.


First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.


They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.


Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.


Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.


That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup

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