Vodafone Fijian 7s captain, Osea Kolinisau, saluted his teammates for their strong defence when they beat New Zealand 26-10 in the Cup quarterfinals of the Wellington 7s yesterday.

“New Zealand is always a hard team to beat in Wellington,” Kolinisau said.

“It was a tough game as New Zealand had a lot of experienced players and they had a quality side. But I’m proud that the boys defended well as we did a lot of defending in the second half and never gave up on our lead.”

He said the plan was to start scoring early against New Zealand in which they executed well.

The Vodafone Fijians ran in two runaway tries through winger Joeli Lutumailagi, which was converted by Kolinisau for a 14-0 lead.

A moment of brilliance from halfback Seremaia Tuwai when he slipped his way past Rocky Khan’s tackle from a scrum that saw him score their third try as they took a commanding 19-0 lead.

NZ hit back immediately when veteran prop DJ Forbes reached out to the scoring line despite Kolinisau hanging desperately on him.

Trailing 5-19, the Kiwis threw everything in the second half but the Fijians defence stood tall with plucky Tuwai leading the way as he stopped Iopu Iopu and Sherwin Stowers with try saving tackles.

With time running out, Tuwai again showed his class when he zoomed past Vilimoni Koroi to set-up Jasa Veremalua to score their final try with Kolinisau converting for a 26-5. Not to be outdone New Zealand strike back with a consolation try to Tim Mikkelson.

Edited by Osea Bola

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