THE highly-fancied Wardens side was bundled out of the 2012 Central Coast 7s by the defending champions Sunnybank in the semi-finals at the Wyong League club ground in Central Coast, Australia yesterday.
The Lepani Botia-captained Wardens side had an impressive start to their campaign winning their pool to make it to the quarter-finals.
But Wardens had to play second best to the defending champions in their semi-final, losing 19-17 after a tough encounter.
The Wardens, with Gold Coast IRB Sevens World Series tournament winners Botia, Joji Ragamate, Ilai Tinai and Alipate Ratini in their side, were unable to stop Sunnybank from making it to another final.
Leading the Wardens was Digicel 7s assistant coach Timoci Wainiqolo.
But it was a historic occasion for Fiji when our three local clubs — Wardens, Westfield Barbarians and Nabua — made it to the semi-finals yesterday.
The unknown Nabua side was the surprise of the tournament as they defeated three top teams including the Samurai International which had several members of the New Zealand 7s players in pool play.
Nabua beat Samurai 19-12.
Nabua's run was finally stopped by Westfield Barbarians in the semi-finals 19-10. The Westfield Barbarians was playing Sunnybank when this edition went to press last night.