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The French development team will play Randwick in thefeature match of the knockout stages of Ablitt Cup at the 64th SingaporeCricket Club International Sevens.

Thierry Janeczek’s young team contested an absorbing Pool B finale against Sunnybank (Queensland) and held on for a 17-14 win.   Jordan Beaulavon’s try was the best of the three for the young French side who had beaten hosts SCC 32-0 earlier in the day at the Padang.

Randwick went down in a nail-biter against the Borneo Eagles losing 12-17 after leading 12-5 at halftime.  The bigger and more physical Eagles, featuring New Zealand U-20 centre Francis Saili, gradually got on top and held on to win.

“It was a close one and we had to dig deep and stick to what we had done at training all week,” said the Eagles’ flyer Richie Ah Chong.   “My heart was beating hard after their try on halftime and it was great to see Francis score that try.It’s big for us to have a special player like him in our team.

 “We’ve come to do one thing and that’s get the Cup and we’ll rest tonight and look forward to tomorrow.”

 The Eagles play East Arnhem after earlier recording a 52-0 win over Kurumi. 

As is customary in the tournament, the oldest sevens event in Asia, there is a Round of 16 on the Sunday before the quarterfinals, meaning a long day for the top teams in the warm conditions.   And on today’s form the team to beat is Fiji’s Daveta, who have racked up 19 tries in three matches without conceding a point.

Peni Naulago scored twice in the 49-0 thrashing of the Pyrenees and their likely quarter-final against the defending champion Penguins is already shaping up to be one of the matches of the tournament.

Today, a decent crowd enjoyed the ‘Friendly Sevens’, theGuinness tents and the family-friendly village atmosphere on a pleasantafternoon and mild evening.

Against the backdrop of the exclusive SCC, founded in 1852, the24 teams from 12 nations ran in large numbers of tries with four – Ponsonby,Borneo Eagles, Penguins and Randwick – topping the half-century.

Four-time champion Ponsonby emerged top of Pool A bydefeating the Singapore national team 52-0 and Impala from Kenya 17-5, whichincluded a spectacular touchdown by Alex Samoa. ‘Ponies’ play Casuarina from the Northern Territory in the round of 16 earlytomorrow.

The Penguins had a nervous finishagainst COBRA from Malaysia winning 12-10 only after Armin Vamaluddin’sattempted conversion on the hooter hit the post.  Willie Walker and Phil Tuigamala scored triesfor the New Zealand-laden UK club who had earlier blitzed Indonesian Harimau 57-0.

Penguins play the other French side, the Pyrenees, who were runners-up in Pool C despitea somewhat unexpected hiccup against Cottesloe whileSunnybank’s loss to France sees them take on Impala in the last 16.

Japan Samurai produced a great defensive effort to beat theSwedish Vikings 24-0.  Several Swedishtries were thwarted and turned into attack by the shadow national team coachedby Wataru Murata.

The Samurai play regular visitors Palmyra (from WesternAustralia) tomorrow while the Vikings will be up against COBRA.

Full results are on www.sccrugbysevens.com

Fixtures for Sunday 6 November

Ablitt Cup Round of16

Ponsonby v Casuarina Cougars

France Development VII v Randwick

Daveta v Tamariva

Cobra v Swedish Vikings

Impala v Sunnybank

Borneo Eagles v East Arnhem

Penguins v Pyrenees

Japan Samurai v Palmyra

Bowl Quarterfinals

SCC v Indonesia Harimau

Bucks v Flying Kukris

Singapore v Te Kaha Pirates

Cottesloe v Kurumi