Cooks struggle to find form

The Cook Islands sevens team struggled to find form at the Hertz Sevens in Wellington, losing two of their three matches on day one at tournament.

After their 27-12 loss to England in their first match – the Cooks were slaughtered by South Africa 43-0 in their second match on day one.

Their third and last match against America saw a more determined squad take to the field to battle with their equally matched USA opponents.

The Cooks were thrilled to take the hard fought win against USA with tries scored by veteran sevens star Koiatu Koiatu, sole Rarotonga based player and international sevens debutant Kairan Mahia, Jamie Makara and Jerome Vogel.

On day two of the tournament in Wellington – the Cooks faced Argentina in what was an error riddled and sloppy match by both sides.

Even commentators of the match said that handling errors were a disappointing feature of day two of the tournament with one saying players across the board looked like they had hangovers from a night of partying in Wellington.

Damp conditions and a slippery ball didn’t help the Cook Islands cause in the bowl quarter final match where the local side spent most of the first half in their own 22m zone.

Argentina lead 7-0 at the halftime break and back in the second spell the Cooks lifted the tempo of their game and looked to score the first try of the half but handling errors again quashed any hopes of the team crossing the line.

Argentina weren’t having the greatest game either but they exploited the Cooks’ weak defence to dot down four times and convincingly win the match 28-0, sending the Cook Islands to the shield semi final against Japan with that match played at 5.30 last night.

Making top 8 was the Cook Islands aim at the sevens but after suffering heavy losses on both days one and two – the Cooks’ only hope was to beat Japan in the shield semi final and progress to the final.