The Fiji Airways Men’s 7s team displayed grit and patience in their second pool match at the HSBC Madrid 7s against Ireland, walking away with a 26-21 golden point win.
Debutant Joji Nasova scored the first try for Fiji, followed by veteran playmaker Jerry Tuwai.
Ireland’s Chay Mullin’s hit back at the stroke of half time to set the scoreboard at 14-7 with Fiji in the lead.
Fiji suffered a blow in the form of Joji Nasova being sin binned for head contact with a Irish player.
The second half kicked off with Fiji playing with a one man deficit.
Hugo Lennox scored in the 11th minute to level the points at 14 all.
Terio Veilawa set up a brilliant try for Vuiviawa Naduvalo with a nice kick ahead.
Jordon Conroy’s 15th minute try in the corner later converted by Lennox levelled the scores at 21 all sending the game into extra time.
Fiji managed to capitalise on the forward pass by Ireland gaining possession and scoring through Vuiviawa Naduvalo to secure the win at 26-21.
They will now take on South Africa at 1:49am Sunday in their final pool match.
In other matches, USA beat Uruguay 29-14, Kenya edged Samoa 19-12, France thrashed Australia 38-5 and Argentina walloped Great Britain 31-5.
Meanwhile the men’s cup semi finals kick off at 10:21 tomorrow night and the cup final will be played at 6:26 Monday morning.
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