Page 58Page 59
Page 58
WINNERS: Canada (men’s and women’s)CANADIAN COMEBACK: Canada’s men fought back from 12-0 down to beat Argentina 22-19 in the gold medal match. A brace of tries from Conor Trainor put the hosts back on level terms only for Argentina to take the lead again. However, tries from Phil Mack and Harry Jones ensured Canada of a second gold after the women had overwhelmed USA 55-7 in their final, Karen Paquin scoring a hat-trick. Paquin and team-mate Magali Harvey tied as the tournament’s top try-scorers with eight. USA claimed the men’s bronze medal and Brazil the women’s.WINNERS: Fiji (men’s and women’s)FIJI’S GOLDEN DOUBLE: Nicole Beck’s failure to convert her own try saw Australia’s women fall short, 12-10 against Fiji,
before the Fijian men ran out convincing 33-7 winners over
Samoa to also claim gold. Tonga’s third-place finish in the men’s competition booked them a place as one of Oceania’s
representatives at the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series
qualifying event in Hong Kong.WINNERS: South Africa (men’s), Australia (women’s)NEW KIDS ON THE BLITZBOKKE: South Africa became proud holders of both the senior and junior Commonwealth Games gold medals for rugby sevens after a second try from Francois Agenbag saw the under-18s withstand a determined fight-back from Australia to win 31-20. Hosts Samoa won the bronze medal with a 12-10 victory over England.TRY MACHINE: In the women’s competition, Australia added to their Youth Olympics title of 2014 with a clinical 36-5 victory over Canada. Try-machine Jayme Fressard dotted down for her 12th and 13th tries of the tournament as Australia blitzed their way into a 24-point lead inside the first 10 minutes. Fiji beat the Cook Islands 22-17 to claim bronze.Full results at: www.worldrugby.orgWORLD RUGBY U20 TROPHY 2015MULTI-SPORT GAMES IN 2015Pan-American Games (11-12 July, Toronto, Canada)Pacific Games (8-10 July, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea)Commonwealth Youth Games (9-11 September, Apia, Samoa)WINNERS: GeorgiaRUNNERS-UP: Canada WHEN: 12-24 MayWHERE: Lisbon, PortugalFINAL STANDINGS:1. Georgia 2. Canada 3. Uruguay 4. Tonga 5. Fiji 6. Namibia
7. Portugal 8. Hong KongLEADING POINTS SCORER: Revaz Jinchvelashvili (Georgia), 51GOING UP: Georgia made their first appearance in a U20
Trophy final a winning one, seeing off Canada 49-29 to claim the title and promotion to the World Rugby U20 Championship for 2016. Two of the stand-out players were their half-back pairing of Vasil Lobzhanidze – who would go on to become the youngest player in RWC history in September – and Revaz
Jinchvelashvili.POINTS FEST: An incredible 293 points and 37 tries were scored at an average of 73 points per game on finals day. The third place play-off between Uruguay and Tonga produced the highest aggregate score and a 44-43 win for Los Teritos after a last-gasp try by captain Facundo Klappenbach.VAN’S THE MAN: Namibia flanker Christo van der Merwe
finished as top try scorer with five in the pool stages. FIJI FLOUNDER: Opening defeats to Georgia and Uruguay
ruined any hopes pre-tournament favourites Fiji had of
emulating Italy and Samoa and bouncing back to the U20 Championship at the first attempt.THEY SAID: “We have put in so many hours of hard work together over the last year and it is wonderful that after all of that we’ve been rewarded with this win. I’d like to thank all of the boys for playing to their potential.” Georgia U20 coach
Ilia Maisuradze.58 WORLD RUGBY YEAR IN REVIEW 2015WORLD IN UNION | TOURNAMENTS REVIEW