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 All Blacks celebrate with 'haka' New Zealand beats Fiji to win inaugural Commonwealth rugby gold
Posted: Friday September 25, 1998 07:11 PM
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (CNN/SI) -- New Zealand wrapped up its 100th Commonwealth Games medal with a 21-12 win over world rugby sevens champions Fiji in the debut tournament for the sport at the Games. Tries by Dallas Seymour, Christian Cullen and Caleb Ralph subdued the Fijians in the final of the 7-a-side competition at the Petaling Jaya stadium. But the star was its star winger Jonah Lomu, who helped set up the first two tries and tackled back to foil two almost certain Fijian tries with the All Blacks defense seemingly beaten. "Words can't explain it. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity that we got," Lomu said after collecting his medal before 20,000 cheering fans, most of them Malaysian. "I am sure we didn't see any empty seats here. I'm absolutely astounded, flabbergasted by the amount of people here who know about rugby." The 1.98 meter (6-foot-6) and 118 kg (260 pound) giant of rugby was in tears as the players wound up three days of action with the gold medal. In celebration of their historic victory, the All Blacks broke into a gold medal "haka", the traditional war dance which they usually perform at the start of matches. "This ranks up there with the career highlights like winning my first cap for the All Blacks," said New Zealand captain Eric Rush. "We converted our chances better than they did. That was the difference on the day." Fijian star Severi Waisale lamented the loss and admitted his team lost a great opportunity to follow up on its world championship triumph. "We did take out scoring opportunities and you cannot afford to do that in a final, especially against New Zealand," he said. The 10-minutes each way final was surprisingly scoreless until the 5th, when Lomu's charge through the middle set up an opening for Seymour to collect the ball and sprint over for a try which was converted by Cullen. The Fijians replied within three minutes when Saimoni Rikoni thwarted a New Zealand score with a try-saving tackle at one end and then made his way upfield to take a pass inside and cross for the converted score. The game appeared headed into half-time even but Lomu again started off a New Zealand move with his pace and power, sucked Fijians into the tackle and Cullen took over to cross for the try despite a high Fijian tackle. His conversion made it 14-7 at the interval. Stung by the score, Fiji hit back with a try only a minute into the second half by Rauqe Senirusi to cut the lead to two points. Though overpowered by the heavier All Blacks, the Fijians had the chance to turn the game around but Lomu twice got back to prevent tries and preserve his team's lead before Ralph came up with the third try with less than three minutes to go. The ball ran loose after a tackle and Ralph punted it ahead and outpaced a Fijian in a race over the line. Cullen's conversion meant Fiji had to score twice to win and the All Blacks held on. Australia, led by veteran former wing star David Campese, beat Samoa 33-12 to win the bronze. Eighteen nations took part in the Commonwealth Games first rugby competition and almost 400 tries were scored.
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