Congratulations to South Africa’s Blitzbokke on taking out Gold in the Sevens rugby at the Commonwealth Games. This was no mean feat as New Zealand their opponents in the final had won every single Sevens tournament at the Games going back to 1998 when they were introduced.
The good news for the game and no doubt for the Olympics, where Sevens will be a part in 2016 was that record crowds attended the event, with 171,000 coming through the turnstiles at Ibrox to watch the sport over two days.
Seabelo Senata was the star for South Africa scoring two tries in their 17-12 victory and his 10th and 11th of the tournament. This was an improvement on the bronze medal the South African’s won in Delhi and they made history becoming the first side to beat New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games; A fantastic run by the New Zealanders, who no doubt knew it had to end one day.
New Zealand had beaten Australia in the semi final after the Aussies had a miraculous win in the quarter finals against Wales, coming back from 19-0 down to score and win after the siren. Australia claimed the bronze medal beating Samoa 24-0.
The standard of rugby and the crowds flocking to the game are great news for the sport, although they were probably to be expected as after all Scotland is credited as being the birthplace of this form of the game!
