ENGLAND SEVENS BEATEN IN CUP QUARTER-FINAL IN LAS VEGAS
England Sevens will face New Zealand on day three in the fifth-place semi-final at the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in Las Vegas.
In their Cup quarter-final tie, England went down to a narrow 12-17 loss as Perry Baker scored a hat-trick for hosts USA.
Earlier, on day two in the pool decider against South Africa in another a tight game, England lost 19-24 despite Dan Bibby’s two tries.
England’s match against New Zealand is on Sunday 4 March at 20:28 GMT and will be live on Sky Sports Action.
Against a fired-up home crowd England spent the opening minutes doing some scrambling defensive work winning a number of penalties.
They were breached finally after four minutes when the World Rugby player of the year Perry Baker scored from a looping pass.
Baker was on the end of a counter attacking move as he sprinted around the outside for their second, but Ollie Lindsay-Hague’s superb step and break got England on the board with the clock dead at half-time.
Baker’s hat-trick was secured out wide, but Dan Norton was sent into the corner following a neat offload from Phil Burgess to make it 17-12 to the hosts with three minutes remaining.
England threw men forward in search of a match-winning score but the Eagles held out to move into the semi-final of their home tournament.
England finished day one as top points scorers across the competition with 73 over their first two games, as captain Tom Mitchell was leading points scorer with 28 of those points.
However, facing the reigning world champions they trailed early on as Siviwe Sovizwapi and then Cecil Afrika crossed for a 12-0 lead.
A perfect kick forward from Bibby led to Mitchell crossing before Sovizwapi’s second for the Blitzboks, but Mitchell then returned the favour as Bibby latched onto his kick as England trailed 19-12 at the break.
South Africa skipper Philip Snyman got their fourth try before Bibby’s second got England within five points at 24-19. With two minutes remaining they were unable to find another despite some late pressing.
“We started a bit slow against South Africa which was disappointing – they are a well organised outfit and we were just on the wrong side of the result in that first game,” said Tom Mitchell.
“I thought we came out pretty well against the USA who were really strong out here in front of a home crowd.
“Unfortunately there were a few things we just kept getting a little bit wrong which means we’re still coming out on the wrong side of these very close results which is a tough one to take.
“Everyone’s excited about coming out here again tomorrow and the opportunity to keep getting better and to continue moving forward.”
England sat top of Pool B after the first two games following some impressive attacking displays in their opening two matches.
Richard De Carpentier’s two tries as well as a long range effort from Ollie Lindsay-Hague were part of England’s six tries as they racked up a 42-12 victory against Canada in their opener.
Tom Bowen then ran in three superb scores to make it four tries in two games for the wing in the 33-12 win over Wales, with Tom Mitchell and all-time leading try scorer Dan Norton also crossing.
England Sevens squad for Las Vegas:
Dan Bibby
Tom Bowen
Phil Burgess
Richard de Carpentier
Mike Ellery
Harry Glover
Ollie Lindsay-Hague
Ruaridh McConnochie
Tom Mitchell ©
James Rodwell
Dan Norton
Ethan Waddleton
13th man: Will Edwards
England’s Las Vegas results:
England 40-12 Canada
Tries: Phil Burgess, Richard de Carpentier (2), Ollie Lindsay-Hague, Tom Bowen, Tom Mitchell
England 33-12 Wales
Tries: Tom Bowen (3), Tom Mitchell, Dan Norton
England 19-24 South Africa
Tries: Tom Mitchell, Dan Bibby (2)
Cup quarter final:
England 12-17 USA
Tries: Ollie Lindsay-Hague, Dan Norton
Fifth-place semi-final: England v New Zealand (Sunday 4 March, 20:28 GMT)
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