England 7s to face New Zealand in Dubai quarter-final
ENGLAND Sevens will take on New Zealand in the quarter final of the Cup competition after losing 12-5 to Australia in their final Pool game.
The loss came after victories against USA and Kenya earlier in the day.
Head Coach Simon Amor said: “We made good progress from game one to game two but didn’t quite execute our plan as well as we would have liked against Australia. But full credit to them, they’re a good side and they took their chances well.
“We’ll regroup and rest up ahead of what will be another tough game against New Zealand tomorrow. Our squad will be stretched as we have a couple of injuries – Dan Bibby is out with a dislocated shoulder and we’re assessing James Rodwell.
“We did well against New Zealand in the Gold Coast but that will have no bearing whatsoever on tomorrow, they have been playing well and with confidence and it will be a challenge, but we are looking to perform as best as we can.”
Against Australia, Amor’s side started brightly and went ahead through Dan Norton who raced through to score, but Australia hit back to equalise after the buzzer sounded.
In a closely-contested second seven minutes, Australia managed to get the crucial second score while England were down to six men with Dan Bibby down injured.
Allan Fa’alava’au’s try was converted by James Stannard to make it 12-5 which is how in stayed until the end.
Earlier in the day, England backed up a solid 19-10 win against USA with a resounding 38-0 victory against Kenya.
England started well against Kenya and never looked back. Tom Bowen opened up the scoring before Christian Lewis-Pratt got the second. Bowen secured his brace just before the half-time whistle with a well-worked score.
The second period was just as good and Jeff Williams and Dan Norton both touched down to make it 31-0. But the best try was perhaps saved to last – a deft offload from Alex Gray freed up space for Phil Burgess to dot down.
Earlier, England kicked off with a hard-earned 19-10 win against a well-drilled USA side.
USA almost took the lead early when speedster Perry Baker made a dart for the line, but England skipper Tom Mitchell made sure he put a foot in touch. Mike Friday’s side did get the first score minutes later though when Madison Hughes broke through to touch down.
That seemed to spark England into life and they went deservedly level before the break through Dan Norton – scoring his 171st Sevens Series try.
Mitchell raced through for England’s second early in the second half to make it 12-5 before Christian Lewis-Pratt went over for 19-5.
Wing Carlin Isles gave the fans something to cheer in the final play when he pushed accelerate to score in the corner to make it 19-10, which is how it stayed.
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