5 Mar 2018

Sport: Fiji to meet USA in Vegas semis

7:42 am on 5 March 2018

Fiji will meet hosts United States in the Las Vegas rugby sevens semi-finals finals this morning after they defeated New Zealand 14-10 thanks to an injury time try to captain Jerry Tuwai.

Tuwai broke the New Zealand defensive line over a minute and a half after regulation time to send Fiji through to the next round.

Jerry Tuwai scored an injury time winner to help advance Fiji to the Vegas 7s semi-finals

Jerry Tuwai scored an injury time winner to help advance Fiji to the Vegas 7s semi-finals Photo: World Rugby

The captain said his try was a team effort.

"I think our boys they have fun when we scored in the last minute, [but] I told them please don't do that again," he said.

"I think we just love the adrenaline and I am really happy with them for the team effort, it was a team effort".

Fiji remain in the hunt for their second consecutive tournament win of the series despite losing to Kenya on day one.

Tuwai said his team still need to improve before meeting USA.

"For us it is our communication on defence and teamwork" he said.

"Sometimes the boys just got lazy when we are in front and I think that is the main thing that [we] work on and try to bury it."

Argentina play South Africa in the other Cup semi-final.

Meanwhile the All Blacks Sevens may be out of cup contention but their coach Clark Laidlaw said there was still plenty to play for when they face England in the fifth place playoffs.

With the series continuing on and the Commonwealth games just around the corner, Laidlaw believes it will only take a few adjustments to get the game plan back on track.

"We're growing and we are getting better," Laidlaw said.

"We're getting stronger and everytime we play we are finding out what works for us."

However Laidlaw said the performance against Fiji wasn't good enough and he described it as "frustrating".