Kiwis edge BlitzBoks in Hong Kong thriller
It is a result that saw the Kiwis advance to yet another tournament Final - where they will meet Pacific rivals Fiji - and reduced the BlitzBoks to yet another minor play-off, this time for third place.
It was a game of many errors, a result of a torrential downpour earlier, but this was a game of great intensity and endeavour - with both teams forced into a change of tactics.
Australia had no answer to Fiji's pace and power, as the Pacific Islanders headed into the Final of the tournament the most enjoy winning.
The minor finals will be contested between the United States and England (Plate), Argentina versus Scotland (Bowl) and Russia against Canada (Shield).
We look at all the semifinals!
Cup semifinals:
New Zealand, starting with heavy hitters Liam Messam and Sonny Bill Williams, produced the first mistake - Messam failing to hold onto a soft pass inside his 22. The scrum became a free kick and from the next ruck Tim Agaba flopped over for the opening score. A Justin Geduld error, when he kicked the ball directly into touch from just outside his 22, afforded the Kiwis an attacking line-out. However, some strong defence again dislodged the ball.
Just before the half-time break Derek Forbes knocked on just inside the BlitzBoks 22, as another try-scoring opportunity was wasted by the New Zealanders - leaving the BlitzBoks ahead 7-0 at the break.
A number of breakdown penalties early in the second half again afforded the Kiwis an attacking position deep inside the South African half. Eventually Lewis Ormond strolled over near the left corner - the Gillies Kaka conversion drawing the teams level with just over two minutes remaining. A knock-on and a scrum near the Kiwi 22 afforded the BlitzBoks the next attacking opportunity, but Cecil Afrika made a silly error that gifted the Kiwis a scrum feed inside their 22. South Africa kept the Kiwis pinned inside their half and forced the match into sudden-death extra time.
Extra time started with the BlitzBoks again guilty of a silly handling error, followed by a penalty to New Zealand at the scrum and another knock-on by South Africa. Still the Kiwis struggled to find the winning score, eventually handing the ball back to SA with a knock-on of their own. A high tackle then reduced New Zealand to six men (Isaac Te Tamaki the culprit), but strangely the referee still handed possession back to New Zealand. Another penalty marked the end of the first half of extra time.
The high error count by the BlitzBoks continued in the final half, with more breakdown penalties, with Te Tamaki making amends for his earlier transgression with a brilliant chase for a long kick ahead to win his team a scrum feed five metres from the SA line. It was a cross-field kick by Kurt Baker that found Regan Ware for the match-winner.
In the second semifinal a combination of power and sublime inter-passing sent Semi Kunatani over for Fiji's first score against Australia. Handling continued to be an issue for teams in the greasy conditions, but Jasa Veremalua managed to stretch the lead as the game swung from end-to-end.
Pio Tuwai then produced some sublime footwork to bamboozle the Aussie defence and stretch the lead to 19-0, the half ending with Vatemo Ravouvou slotting a penalty to give his team a 2--0 lead at the break.
James Stannard got Australia on the board two minutes after the restart of the break, his guile and power getting him over. Ed Jenkins produced a cover tackle of great significance as the Fijians looked to stretch the lead.
The decisive score came with just under three minutes remaining, Osea Kolinisau jogging over after another classic back-handed pass exposed the Aussie defence - Kolinisau's 100th series try.
There was enough time for Kitione Dawai to rub it in with a try that made the full-time score 34-5.
Results:
New Zealand 12-7 South Africa (extra time - the teams were level 7-all at the end of regulation full-time)
Fiji 34-5 Australia
Plate semifinals:
Wales could easily have been more than 10 points behind in the first Plate semifinal, had two chances not gone begging for the United States. Perry Baker dropped the ball in the act of scoring shortly after his pass to Maka Unufe was adjudged to have been forward. Baker got the scoring underway with the game's first try, before Ben Pinelman added a second despite the close attentions of Luke Morgan.
After Pinkelman got his second try of the match, Perry Baker matched his Kiwi namesake, Kurt, in scoring a hat-trick at the Hong Kong Sevens. Wales hardly had a sniff of the ball let alone a try scoring chance.
In the second semifinal Richard de Carpentier took a pop pass from Phil Burgess to score under the posts, as England made an encouraging start against the massively physical Kenyans. Dan Norton joined Ben Gollings in becoming an English double centurion for tries scored on the series - when he dribbled the ball over the line at the end of the first half - 12-0 to the English.
Burgess capped a good display with England's third try, before captain Tom Mitchell confirmed the win when he gathered his own chip over the top to score in front of the South Stand. Great interplay leads to Ollie Lindsay-Hague added further gloss to the victory with seconds remaining.
Results:
Wales 0-27 United States
Kenya 0-33 England
Bowl semifinals:
Argentina went into the break level after veteran Nicolas Bruzzone took a quick tap and wriggled over for a try, which Bautista Ezcurra converted. To make matters worse for France, Jeremy Alcardi was sent to the sin-bin. Alcardi played a part in the first try of the match when his offload found Virimi Vakatawa. Argentina made it three wins on the bounce in Hong Kong, after one second-half try proved enough to defeat France in the Bowl semifinal. Bautista Ezcurra was the catalyst once again, picking up the ball at the base of a ruck and showing enough pace to get behind the French defensive line, before feeding Juan Pablo Estelles for the all-important score.
Scotland and Samoa enjoyed a ding-dong battle as Dougie Fife ghosted through for the first try for Scotland, but Samoa fired back with two of their own - Belgium Tuatagaloa tearing up the turf with a 60-metre run, before captain Faalemiga Selesele finished off another good move for try number two - giving Samoa a 14-5 lead at the break. The rain returned and it seemed to have favoured Scotland - as they score first at the start of the second half, when Dougie Fife races over for his second of the match with barely a hand laid on him. Scotland No.6 Mart Robertson won it for Scotland with one of the tries of the day. Robertson collected the ball inside his own 22 and pinned his ears back for a long-range score that included a ferocious hand-off.
Results:
France 7-14 Argentina
Samoa 14-19 Scotland
Shield semifinals:
Russia looked to be running away with the first Shield semifinal - following tries for Dmitry Sukhin and German Davydov. However, Korea's Hyun Soo Kim muscled his way over to pull five points back - the conversion making at 12-7 at the break. Alexander Ianiushkin rounded off the scoring with a try in Hong Kong some 15 years after making his debut in the tournament . Vladislav Sozonov and Denis Simplikevich produced the other second-half tries for a Russian team who was just too strong for an injury-hit Korean squad - who could ill afford In Jo Hwang's sin-binning for throwing the ball away.
Shortly after Harry Jones was denied by a last-ditch tackle, Conor Trainor slid in under the posts for a try that Nathan Hirayama converted with ease to pull to within one point of Vatemo Ravouvou at the top of this season's points scoring chart. Meanwhile, there was some amusement when Pedro Leal, the shortest man on the field, got pinged for a high tackle. Nathan Hirayama became this season's top points scorer on the World Series with 253 points when he converted Mike Fuailefau's try in the second Shield semifinal. Fed up with Canada's keep ball tactics, Lucan Hammond went on a direct run to set up an attacking ruck. From there, Pay Kay fed Fuailefau who jogs over unopposed. Pedro Leal, so often Portugal's inspiration, pulled five points back, but John Moonlight regained the initiative for Canada with their third and final try.
Results:
Korea 7-29 Russia
Canada 19-5 Portugal
Source: @WorldRugby7s