WELLINGTON, 8 February 2004 — New Zealand beat Fiji 33-15 in the final of the Wellington round of the International Sevens tournament here yesterday. The defending champions ran in five tries to three and led 19-5 at half-time, as they made their passes stick.

Fiji had the first points on the board when Filmone Bolavuce scored inside the first minute, but never appeared to have the same cohesion as New Zealand.

The home side, who now move to the top of the ladder after three rounds of the series, replied with tries to Antony Tuitavake, Justin Wilson and Matua Parkinson to be 12 points clear at the turn over, with Wilson converting all tries except his own.

Fiji scored twice early in the second half, narrowing the gap to 19-15 but could not maintain the momentum and sorely missed the presence of Nasoni Roko who was suspended for a week for a dangerous tackle in a quarterfinal match. New Zealand put the result beyond doubt in the dying minutes with two tries to Brad Fleming, both converted by Wilson.

Beating England Would Be Icing on the Cake for Laporte

In London, beating England in the final match of the Six Nations to capture his second Grand Slam would certainly be the icing on the cake for French coach Bernard Laporte. France face England in what the organizers pray will be a real championship decider, as it was by accident rather than design last year when Ireland went to the wire against the English.

For Laporte, though, it will require a superhuman effort to raise his troops’ morale after the battering they took at the hands of England in the pouring rain in Sydney in the 24-7 World Cup semifinal defeat in November.

However he will be extra keen to start off his hard-won new four-year contract with an impressive Six Nations campaign — Laporte is still under the microscope, as are his assistant coaches who are on probation for the tournament. A chastened Laporte has said there are lessons to be learned from the last game with England and he is determined to take advantage of them.

Laporte now has to contend with a demanding first match at home to Ireland on Feb. 14, though for the always romantically inclined French it being St. Valentines Day might just spur them on that much more passionately.

However, Laporte accepts that with the retirements of inspirational charismatic captain Fabien Galthie and 1999 World Cup skipper Raphael Ibanez, a huge gap has been left. “They were immense players for us,” said Laporte. Those will be huge gaps to fill but then again other teams have lost influential players such as Martin Johnson for England and Keith Wood from Ireland ... so there is no excuse.”