Russia stunned sevens legends Fiji with a last minute penalty to hold the Pacific Islanders to a 10-10 draw today at the Hong Kong Sevens.
Russian back Konstantin Ratchkov struck a sweetly timed penalty kick between the uprights in the dying seconds of the Pool A game to level thescores and leave the Fijians hanging their heads in shame.
Russia delivered the opening blow in the first minute of the game with Victor Jakovlev diving over the line. Fiji struck back moments later throughSemisi Naevo but thereafter failed to ignite, making a succession of uncharacteristic handling errors.
Elsewhere, the Australian juggernaut continued unabated, 36-7 winners over South Korea in their second Pool B game.
Richard Graham, the cornerstone of the resurgent Australian sevens team, led the way with a brace of tries in their six-try-to-one victory.
Australia, who haven't won in Hong Kong since 1988, are currently tied with New Zealand, four points behind Fiji going into this fourth event ofthe International Rugby Board's 2001 World Sevens Series.
New Zealand skipper Karl Te Nana played a key role in the defending champions' 38-0 win over a fighting Hong Kong in Pool C.
The dreadlocked Kiwi set up three tries and scored another while Jared Going, the only other player from January's World Cup Sevens winningsquad, added three more tries to take his tournament tally to five.
"It was harder than it looked," said the 25-year-old Te Nana. "We still have a lot to work on. We need to finish off more opportunities we createdwith tries but we are getting better and better."
"Seeing Fiji draw with Russia shows we are in a good chance here," he added.
In other matches, England, without any of their Six Nations internationals, thumped Singapore 66-5 with the pacy Nigel Simpson running in ahat-trick of tries in the Pool D clash. Neighbours Wales demolished the West Indies 47-0.
Malaysia conceded 56 unanswered points to Canada in Pool E while the Arabian Gulf almost produced the second upset of the tournament beforebeing pipped by a fitter France 22-14 in Pool C. -AFP