Am I the only one that thinks Neji wins? Gaara's sand wasn't shown to be that powerful back in the Chuunin exams like it was in the Sasuke Retrieval arc, so Neji can block it with Rotation. Tenten said that Neji was the strongest Genin alive even after seeing what Gaara did to Lee, I guess you can argue though that she was being a bit of a fangirl, but still Lee said that Neji was stronger than him without the gates so that means Neji kept up with Unweighted Lee the same one that blitzed Gaara's sand defense so I wouldn't say that it's impossible for Neji to get past his defense.
Nah, there are scarce few who think otherwise as well.
The thing is, Gaara's sand was still effective in blocking attacks, including most taijutsu. Neji could still block Gaara's attacks with his rotation, but he would be on the defensive the entire time with it. He said that he was one of the strongest genin, at least from the leaf.
Neji could react to Lee back then, but that didn't mean that he could physically move as fast as Lee could. Back then, Neji had a 3 in speed and Lee had a 4, meaning that their speed levels were different.