Great victory by the English in the final. It was almost destiny that the giant killer Damudamu who destroyed Fiji and Kenya would also do the same to NZ. Good on Gollings on slotting the winning conversion...he deserves it after 10 years of sevens rugby for England. Vickery really showed you can never judge a guy buy his build (Vickery looks porky like) as he outgassed Waqasaeduadua for England first try....real pace for sure. Philips was a bit quiet and overwhelmed in the first half but in the second he started to make some good inroads.
The English coach was very optimistic about his side chances at halftime and did some skillful talking at the break when he appealed to the players hopes and dreams by saying "How good is this fellas? We're in NZ against NZ in the final. It doesn't get any better than this". By saying this he made the players rise to their boyhood dreams rather than playing within themselves under pressure and full of anxiety.
The crucial part in the game for NZ was losing Cama. He is the Serevi of the NZ team and once he went the Kiwis were reduced to a bunch of guys blundering around. Against the Englis playmakers of Philips and Gollings the Kiwis had no chance in the final minutes.
Gutted about the early exit in the quarters (but from the sound of it, it was an immense match).
At least we still got the 8 points.
Would have loved to watch all of the games in this tournament, sounded really exciting with all the big teams losing their pool games, I wonder if the USA will be even better with the next round, being home ground and all.
