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Source: ONE News
NZ captain DJ Forbes holds up the trophy after winning the Cup Final against Fiji - Source: Getty -
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Chris Matthews' does it all again as he attempts to bring you the sights, sounds and smells of the Wellington Sevens.
11pm - That's all folks
Thanks for joining us. Don't forget to come back to
tvnz.co.nz tomorrow to read the 2012 Wellington Sevens Awards.
Bye for now.
10.25pm -
NZ to enjoy double dose
of celebrations
The New Zealand Sevens team have double reason to
celebrate tonight after they demolished Fiji 24-7 in the Wellington
final to win their second consecutive home title tonight.
After stem-rolling to the title last year, the class of 2011/12 joins the 2004/05 team as the only New Zealand team to go back-to-back.
They also now lead the World Series outright, and head to Las Vegas for next weekend's fifth leg on 73 points, three points ahead of Fiji.
The man who inspired it all was ironically Fijian-born Tomasi Cama, who pulled out his full bag of tricks in setting-up two tries and scoring one himself.
World Series leading try scorer, the ever impressive Frank Halai - who now has 24 tries this season - added to his tally by bagging a double as New Zealand raced out to a 24-0 halftime lead.
9:15pm - So-called streaker fails dismally
After a pitch invader, wearing just his under pants, ran
on to the field last night and grabbed Samoan player Alatasi Tupou
around the neck and pulled him to the ground, it would surely take
a brave soul to try their luck tonight.
But predictably some bozo tried it on and got mid-pitch before
being hammered by a handful of security guards. But this guy was
lame. For one he had clothes on and secondly they were his everyday
clothes! Now I'm pretty certain a prerequisite of streaking is
doing it with next to nothing on and why wasn't this guy in
costume? Had he not heard this was a dress-up party? No wonder he
wanted to leave.
8:16pm - And the best costume is..
As promised here are the winners of the Costume Catwalk
that were announced before New Zealand beat England (To see photos
of the winners go to our
Facebook
page
)
Best Females: Strawberry Shortcake Girls
Best Female runner-up: The Phoenix
Best Male: Bumble Bee Transformer
Best Males runner-up: Scotland's Fattest
Losers
Best Group: Lego Crew
Best Group runner-up: The Chandeliers
Best Costume representing Wellington: Spy Cam
Scooter
Best Costume representing Wellington runner-up:
The Bucket Girls
Overall winner who gets $10,000: Lego Crew
All the costumes were spectacular but the Bumble Bee transformer, whose costume cost $400, was the best for mine even though he didn't make it. He is however selling it on TradeMe tomorrow if anyone is interested.
For reaction from the winning Lego Crew read the 2012 Wellington Sevens Awards tomorrow morning
7:24pm - New Zealand win classic semi-final
New Zealand is on track to defend their Wellington title
with an epic 19-12 extra-time win over England in the Cup
semi-finals tonight.
After stem-rolling to the title last year, the class of 2012 is on
the verge of joining the 2004-05 team as the only New Zealand team
to go back-to-back.
They will need to overcome an impressive Fijian team in the final
however who were comprehensive in beating South Africa 21-5 in the
quarter-finals and Samoa 28-5 in the semi-finals.
But if Fijian born Tomasi Cama plays like he did against the
English, New Zealand have a real shot.
Trailing by 12-0 at halftime, Cama sparked the New Zealand comeback
with two magic cross-field kicks which lead directly to
tries.
In the first instance, with Englands defence at its imposing best,
the veteran Cama summed up the situation with a touch of flair by
chipping over to the wing of Sevens rookie Charles Piutau ,who
showed great gas in beating Dan Norton for a 50 metre try.
Still behind by five points, Cama was at it again with his
kick-pass finding Frank Halai. While the big-man was just pulled
down short, it prompted the referee to sin-bin Englands James
Rodwell for killing the ball in what was ultimately a crucial
call.
Hosea Gear was the benefactor of the numerical advantage and on the
very next play scored in the corner and while Cama couldnt nail the
conversion to avoid extra time, New Zealand entered the sudden
death period looking the stronger and fitter unit.
And so it proved with the ever-impressive Halai getting the 50
metre match-winner and then saluting the crowd who roared in unison
knowing they had witnessed a classic match of Sevens Rugby.
6:06pm- And the best costume is..
In just under half an hour the finalists of the inaugural
Costume Catwalk will be unveiled on the field. The best female, the
best male, best group and the costume that best represents
Wellington will take centre stage before New Zealand's semi-final
against England at 6:28pm. All finalist will get $1000 and the
overall winner $10,000.
Over 200 different groups entered on both days and the two judges marking the contestants have some pedigree. Austin Powers, the international man of mystery, judged stage presence while Madison, who is a hair and make-up artist at WETA, judged execution in costume. We will let you know the winners shortly and hopefully get some photos too.
5:17pm - Rave Zone overshadows Rugby
The Rave Zone, out the front of Westpac Stadium, is
dominating the attention of a large portion of the young, wasted
and beautiful here today.
Indeed the rugby happening on the field - yes that's right there is a sport event going on - is being overshadowed by the popular club beats which is sponsored by a beer company who should remain nameless.
But oragnisers, sick of the sight of an empty Stadium last year as the evening reached it's climax, have intervened and will shut the speakers down at 6pm, as opposed to 9pm last year. Party poopers? Well I'll let you be the judge
4:04pm - Heartbreak for Canada
The darlings of day one, Canada, nearly caused another
huge boilover before losing in extra time to Samoa. Trailing 12-5
with regulation time all but up, Sean Duke scored a set-piece try
in the corner before Conor Braid nailed the conversion that sent
the sparse crowd into raptures.
Unfortunately for team Canada a penalty to Lolo Lui, who scored all Samoa's 15 points, ended their dream and unlikely run. Samoa will now play Pacific neighbours Fiji in the second semi-final after they were impressive in beating South Africa 21-5.
3:02pm - No revenge for Les Bleus, NZ into
semi-finals
Sure there is nothing in the rugby world that comes close
to winning the World Cup but France had the opportunity to get a
smidgen of revenge when they played New Zealand in the first Cup
quarter-final.
After racing out to an early 7-0 lead, France faltered as New Zealand powered to a 22-7 win with Tim Mikkelson, Frank Halai, Hosea Gear and Charles Piutau all getting on the score-sheet.
New Zealand will now play the winner of the next quarter-final between England and day one surprise package Tonga, although the Poms are set to quailfy after racing out to a 12-0 halftime lead.
2:05pm - Rugby World Cup could learn from Sevens
format
Now you could hardly consider Australia a minnow of the
rugby world but Japan, who just played our trans-Tasman brothers in
a Bowl quarter-final and were brave in their 33-5 defeat, certainly
are.
The very fact that they get to play on the second day of World Series events' can only improve the developement of their rugby, which begs the question why doesn't the Rugby World Cup implement a simliar format to improve second tiar-nations?
Granted the six week event is possibly too long as it is, but if the teams who were knocked out before the quarter-finals played curtain-rasiers before the big knockout matches it would not only improve the standard of the game but give fans more bang for their buck.
12:50pm - The forgotten summer
Welcome to tvnz.co.nz's live text coverage of day two of the
Wellington Sevens where I can report it has been lightly drizzling
for much of the morning.
It's the first time in three years (as far as I know) this event has seen rain, despite forecasters predicting earlier in the week that today would be the better day. But really what do they know anyway?
Regardless this patchy light rain is meant to continue until the early evening and should give plenty of reasons for a number of Sevens fans to arrive late. Incidentally, there is about 500 people at the Stadium at the moment and all of them work here.
Add a Comment:
Post new commentThe Hoff said on 2012-02-03 @ 13:30 NZDT: Report abusive post
Where the bloody hell are ya?? I am in Cairns mate! Can't make the sevens this year but will be keeping tabs on the fun this weekend. Ex Wellingtonian aka the Hoff.