Russia win both golds at University Games

from IRB.com:

Just two weeks after hosting the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 in Moscow, Russia has won the gold medal in both the men’s and women’s Rugby Sevens finals at the 27th World University Games in Kazan.

In the women’s competition the hosts, featuring 11 of the side that reached the World Cup quarter-finals last month, beat Italy 30-10 in the gold medal match with Ruziet Edidzhi and Marina Petrova both scoring twice for the hosts.

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In the semi finals, Russia beat Canada 31-5 to book their place in the final while Italian women performed heroics to build on a 7-5 half time lead and beat rugby powerhouse Great Britain 14-5 in the first of the semi finals.

In the men’s competition Russia, boasting seven of the country’s World Cup squad from Moscow, beat France 29-19 to claim gold with Ramil Gaysin scoring two of their five tries.

In their semi finals they held off a late challenge from a young South African side to edge them 17-14, to the delight of the vociferous home support before France overwhelmed Great Britain in the second of the semi-finals, 33-12.

Knock-out stages

On the fourth and final day’s play in the women’s competition, France beat Brazil 21-0 to win the Bowl, while China won the Plate after an impressive 19-15 victory over Ukraine.

Canada won the first Sevens medal of the Games, beating Great Britain 36-0 to claim bronze.

In the men’s event, Canada lost to Georgia 26-12 in the final of the Bowl as Belgium proved too strong for Japan, winning 19-10 for the Plate.

Great Britain won the first medal of the men’s competition, winning the bronze medal match 31-14 against South Africa.

The USA women fell just short of Japan, 10-5, in the 9th place match. The USA ended their Russian campaign with a 1-4 record.