England Sevens Defeated in Wellington
England Sevens experienced a difficult second day in Wellington in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.
Simon Amor’s side headed into their Cup quarter-final off the back of three impressive victories on day one against Papua New Guinea (40-0), Argentina (26-7) and Kenya (31-12).
However, they were narrowly beaten by Scotland 14-12 in the last eight, also later losing their fifth-place play-off 24-0 to New Zealand.
“We scored a lot of points on day one in Wellington but what the win in Cape Town proved is the performances on day one don’t really matter, how you play on day two is what’s crucial and today we didn’t reach the levels required,” said Amor.
“It’s both frustrating and disappointing. We’re disappointed with how we performed because the standard we are setting, for where we want to be as a programme, is a lot higher than this and we’re frustrated because we know we can play so much better.”
The tournament was eventually won by South Africa, their first victory in Wellington since 2002. Scotland won the bronze medal match, while Kenya lifted the Challenge Trophy – defeating hosts New Zealand.
In their cup quarter final England suffered a two-point defeat to Scotland.
Amor’s side trailed 14-7 at the break despite Dan Norton’s early score and Tom Mitchell’s conversion but Scotland fired back with converted tries from Jamie Farndale and Gavin Lowe.
Ollie Lindsay-Hague showed fine footwork to reduce the deficit to 12-14 with a late try but England chose against the conversion, however, they failed to find a winning score with the restart not going the full 10m.
England was later beaten by New Zealand with the World Series heading to Sydney next.
“The positive is that we have a fully fit squad so now need to focus on the opportunity we have next weekend in Sydney,” added Amor.
Squad: Dan Bibby, Tom Bowen, Phil Burgess, Alex Davis, Richard de Carpentier, Ollie Lindsay-Hague, Charlie Hayter, Ruaridh McConnochie, Tom Mitchell ©, Dan Norton, James Rodwell, Ethan Waddleton.
Day Two:
Cup Quarter Final
England 12 – 14 Scotland
Tries: Norton, Lindsay-Hague
Conversions: Mitchell
Placing play-off
England 0 – 24 New Zealand
Day One:
On day one, England Sevens secured victories over Papua New Guinea (40-0), Argentina (26-7) and Kenya (31-12) to seal their place in the last eight of the Cup.
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