Cup semi-final: Scotland 12, England 26
Cup quarter-final: Scotland 22, Portugal 21

The Scotland 7s team bowed out of their first ever Cup semi-final appearance, against England, at the Emirates Airline London 7s at Twickenham today.

Following a late surge to defeat Portugal in the quarter-finals, Scotland 7s coach Stephen Gemmell feels that today’s result will be a catalyst for more success at the Emirates Airline Edinburgh 7s Festival at Murrayfield next weekend.

“It was the first ever Cup semi-final for Scotland 7s,” he said, “and you can’t take that away from the players.

“The boys are in there bitterly disappointed. We got back to 14-12 against England on their own patch and maybe just one or two wrong decisions cost us now and again as we tried to force one or two things.

“We’ll go away and review the game tomorrow morning before travelling back up the road. Hopefully we’ve given the fans something to be proud of and we’ll look to build on that next week.”

England sought to dominate the first half, as they had done in their quarter-final meeting with Australia, but Scotland refused to budge. The hosts immediately punished Scotland as they turned over possession in the tackle and generated plenty of space for captain Ollie Phillips to cross for the opening try. Ben Gollings converted. Tom Biggs then executed a simple step inside to touch down between the posts, and with Gollings adding the extras, gave England a useful advantage.

Scotland governed the second quarter and tireless work at the breakdown from Roddy Grant won the ball for Colin Gregor who picked up and sprinted to the line. He was unable to convert his own score but slotted his second as John Houston brought Scotland back into the game just before the break.

Struggling to gain and retain possession in the second half gave England the edge in front of a patriotic home crowd. The home side took time to find a gap and Phillips eventually took the initiative and barged his own way through, offloading to Greg Barden who was able to touch down between the posts making the conversion unmissable. The game was killed shortly before the final whistle as Gollings stepped his opposite man and ducked underneath the advances of replacement Hefin O’Hare to slip through.

Both sides will face each other again on day one of the Emirates Airline Edinburgh 7s Festival at Murrayfield next Saturday (30 May, 12:09pm).

In order to get to the semis, Scotland scored four second half tries to overcome a 21 point half-time deficit to edge through against Portugal. After the opening game, Gemmell said: It’s unbelievable. It’s been a long time coming for me personally. We’ve had a few heartaches in quarter-finals and we made it tough there. It’s been ten years knocking at the door and great credit to them for finally achieving it."

“You could see the nerves coming through from the players. We said we should treat it like any other game but, no matter how many times you say it, the players know it’s not. The players know it’s something we’ve never achieved in the history of Scotland 7s.”

Tries from Aderito Esteves, Sebastiao da Cunha and Goncalo Foro – all converted by Pedro Silva – looked to have killed Scotland’s chances. But battle hard they did, and what a result.

Hefin O’Hare was the difference for the Scots in the second period, coming on at half-time to ignite their attack and solidify their defence.

He almost found the score-sheet as soon as he had taken the field, screaming for the ball out in space, but the eventual pass from Roddy Grant was forward.

Scotland then continued to press. They won their own line-out ball and simple hands fed the ball out to Jim Thompson. Although he had support either side of him, he found his own way to the line, much to his own surprise. Colin Gregor converted.

Then, from what looked certain to be another Portugal try, O’Hare hauled the attacker down and initiated a counter-attack.

Scotland then made their way up the right flank and regrouped in the opposition half. Grant touched down in the corner but Gregor couldn’t convert from such a tight angle.

Glasgow Warriors wing, O’Hare then found the line for a try of his own before his Edinburgh counterpart Andrew Turnbull sealed the historic victory.

Scotland 7s’ starting team v England: Scott Forrest (Ayr)* CAPTAIN, Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh), John Houston (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors)

Scotland 7s’ starting team v Portugal: Scott Forrest (Ayr)* CAPTAIN, Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Jim Thompson (Edinburgh), Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors)

Scotland 7s squad to compete at the final two events on the IRB Sevens World Series in London (23 and 24 May) and Edinburgh (30 and 31 May): Scott Forrest (Ayr)* CAPTAIN, Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Thom Evans (Glasgow Warriors), Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), John Houston (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Hefin O’Hare (Glasgow Warriors), Colin Shaw (Glasgow Warriors), Jim Thompson (Edinburgh), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh)