Ireland edged out by All Blacks in Rugby 7s World Cup semi-final

New Zealand 17-10 Ireland

Ireland were edged out by New Zealand in the semi-final of the Rugby 7s World Cup, going down 17-10 in a thrilling encounter in Cape Town.

Coming into the game on the back off a stunning quarter-final 24-14 victory over tournament hosts South Africa, James Topping's side once again played the role of the underdogs, but got off to a poor start.

With just over 30 seconds on the clock, two Irish players got sucked towards Tone Ng Shiu in the centre and he off-loaded brilliantly to Ngarohi McGarvey-Black on the inside, allowing him to go over unchallenged in the corner.

The conversion kick from Sam Dickson drifted just wide.

The All Blacks were fired up and a minute later McGarvey-Black doubled his side's lead with a great piece of improvisation play, taking the ball off the ground from a counter-ruck and again, sprinting clear of the Irish chasers to touch down. Again, Dickson was unable to add the extras.

Ireland were rocking but to their credit managed to steady the ship and began to ask some questions of their own. They were handed a life-line just before the end of the first half when Moses Leo was sent to the sin-bin for a taking out Terry Kennedy off the ball.

With seven against six, Ireland knew that they had to reduce the deficit and set about doing that with the clock in the red.

Patiently passing in front of an increasingly desperate New Zealand defence, Ireland went through the phases and dragged the All Blacks out of position before eventually working a three on one of the right flank, allowing Jack Kelly to touch down in the corner.

Mark Roche stepped up for the conversion but was desperately unlucky as the ball hit the woodwork, bouncing back out.

With Leo still in the sin-bin at the start of