DUBAI: The Cup Final was won by New Zealand after a first half when Samoa showed little of the form with which they defeated England in the semifinals. However, they came back with two tries in the second half but by then New Zealand had got away and were not about to be overtaken. Their winning try came from a classic charge down and chase from a few meters off the Samoan goal line to win the day 24-12.

South Africa never recovered from a try scored by Australia in the last minute of the first half of the Plate final. Throwing everything they had at the Australians in the second half, the Wallabies absorbed the punishment but firmly shut the door on the Springboks to win one converted try to nil (7-0).

Math lands Jeddah in final

Losing half your team is unlucky; losing a whole team – at least in Jeddah Rugby Club’s (JRFC) case – proved to be very lucky. The non-appearance of the Alkhobar team for a decider match on Saturday morning gave JRFC, with their one competition win over Hurricanes on Friday, a bye that put them into the final of the Gulf Men’s competition against Kuwait.

“The expressions on the team’s faces when we heard officially that we had made it through to the final was something special,” winger Matt Jay told Arab News late on Friday. “Whatever the result, we made the final after taking some real punishment in the early rounds.”

In the final, JRFC began the game with two players from the Sevens pool to substitute a shortage in their own ranks. Despite this, Jeddah ran in three converted tries with great rapidity putting them comfortable ahead of Kuwait 21-0. With what looked like an easing of pressure from Jeddah, Kuwait replied with two tries leaving Jeddah ahead at half time.

The second half saw resurgence in Kuwait’s fortunes running their points up to 26 while Jeddah only managed an unconverted try. However, they went over the line from a penalty close to Kuwait’s line but were called back, the advantage to Jeddah going un-played. Final time saw the scores at 26 all.

During the sudden death play-off, confusion reigned as Jeddah, after a breakthrough by Kuwait, assumed the ball carrier had crossed their line. He had not, and when he recovered himself, Jeddah’s defense was in disarray and at the second attempt Kuwait went over from two meters to officially settle the game at 31-26.

Equally tense were the international matches for this quarterfinal day. The South African scoring engine was finally spiked when a rampant Fiji shut down the Springboks with some crippling tackles and matched their ultra physical style with one of their own. A low scoring first half, 5-5 set the scene for an exciting second half and the crowd was not disappointed. Two minutes in Fiji ran in a try and conversion and the game was really on. Desperately fighting to score, Fiji kept the South African onslaught at bay in an increasingly aggressive and physical encounter. Forty-eight seconds into overtime, they clinched the outcome with an unconverted try leaving an exhausted South Africa smarting with a 17-5 defeat.

Keeping the surprises coming the ever-entertaining Kenyans took on the New Zealand All Blacks who racked up a 12-0 lead in the first half against a fighting Kenya. When the second half opened, it was a reinvigorated Kenya that took to the field and slammed in two converted tries in a three-minute period leaving them 14-12 ahead just eight seconds from time. The All Blacks threw everything they had at a maul on the Kenyan try line and scrambled over as the siren blew and maintained their record with 17-14 win.

The most nail biting match of the quarters was England and Argentina. For the entire first half, the South Americans ran rings round a dull England attack and kept them confined almost exclusively to their own half accumulating a converted try in the process.

During the interval, England must have had the riot act read to them, because within 40 seconds of the restart they had scored their first try. From then on, they rarely left the Argentine half and placed another converted try to add to their account. Not to be outdone the Pumas responded with a typically jinking break out leading to an unconverted try – but it was not enough and the match ended 17-12 to England.

Samoa did what Samoa does best – upsetting plans for Australia by using their speed and strength to produce a riveting encounter. Australia opened its book after 39 seconds with an unconverted try that they followed with a second under two minutes later.

Clearly disgruntled, the Samoans responded with two converted tries in two minutes taking the break at 14-10. The business then got exceedingly serious with Australia scoring three times in as many minutes to reach a comfortable 27-10.

In danger of being deeply inconvenienced by their rivals, the Samoans turned on the power and planted a converted try four seconds from full time. With just time for a restart, they took control and in 90 seconds of bone-crunching play they edged a final converted try past the Wallabies to close their account to qualify for the semifinals at 28-27 to Samoa.