New Zealand women win Singapore Sevens and Fiji men overcome surprising Kenya
SINGAPORE (AP) — New Zealand women retained the Singapore Sevens rugby title by defeating Australia 31-7 and Fiji men triumphed at the National Stadium for the first time in three years on Sunday.
Fiji overcame Kenya 21-12 in their final after being held scoreless in the first half.
New Zealand was over after 69 seconds thanks to Michaela Brake and 12-0 up after Risi Pouri-Lane wriggled free and scored next.
That should have been the halftime score but, after the hooter, New Zealand tried to play out of its 22, was turned over, and Maddison Levi scored to cut the gap to five.
Just 35 seconds into the second half, Jazmin Felix-Hotham grubbered and scored, then offloaded for a try to Kelsey Teneti.
Teneti would have had a second but for brilliant defense by Levi, who ripped the ball from Teneti over the try-line before she could touch down.
Brake, the all-time leading try-scorer in the women's world series, bookended the final with her second try for New Zealand to improve its record against Australia to 20 wins in 29 finals.
New Zealand has appeared in all six finals of this world series and won four, including the last three. It also dominated a year ago but Australia ended up as the series champion because the last leg in Los Angeles on May 3-4 is a winner-takes-all scenario.
Fiji overcome yellow card and Kenya
In the men's final, history was on Fiji's side. It was appearing in an 85th cup final (won 46), while Kenya was in its seventh (one win) and first in eight years. Fiji also came with a 14-game winning streak over Kenya since 2018.
But Kenya was better out of the blocks. It couldn't take advantage when Fiji captain Sevu Mocenacagi was sin-binned for a high elbow but still scored first, after the halftime hooter. A dropped pass by Fiji around halfway was kicked ahead by Vincent Onyala and Nygel Amaitsa won the race to the ball in-goal.
Kenya led 7-0 and upheld an impressive record of not conceding a point in the first half of all of its Singapore matches.
But primary reliance on a swarming defense came to bite Kenya.
Within two minutes of the second half, Joseva Talacolo broke two tackles and sent Vuiviwa Naduvalo to the try-line and Fiji was level.
As penalties and errors mounted against Kenya, denying it possession, Naduvalo's second try made it 14-7 with three minutes to go.
Fiji sealed victory after Talacolo set up another try for Rauto Vakadranu, while Kenya's William Mwanji had the last say.
Naduvalo was named the player of the final, just as he was when Fiji last won Singapore in 2022.
___
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
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