24 Mar 2014

Sport: Fiji close gap on Sevens Series leaders

3:04 pm on 24 March 2014

Fiji has closed the gap on the World Series leaders after a stunning victory at the Tokyo Sevens.

The Fijians beat South Africa 33-26 in the tournament final, having upset New Zealand 17-12 in the semis.

Fiji coach Ben Ryan was pleased with his sides' finish after not quite hitting their straps on day one.

"It's good to get on the podium again and the boys played really well today. They started slowly yesterday but when they want to turn up and want to turn it on they're not an impossible team to stop but they're pretty hard to stop. You can see what happens when you get the boys together and they start winning things, it's been terrific".

Captain Osea Kolinisau says the result keeps them well in the overall title race.

"Like we said in the first tournament, our goal this season is to win the series and we're just closing up the points. We hope to try and improve on our mistakes and take one game at a time at Hong Kong".

The top three countries have each won two World Series legs this season with third-placed Fiji up to 95 points, 21 behind new leaders South Africa.

Samoa failed to to make it out of the group stages and lost four matches in all, including the Shield final against Argentina.

The World Series now moves to Hong Kong where Fiji are the defending champions.