ENGLAND SEVENS DEFEATED BY FIJI IN CAPE TOWN
A late try saw England beaten 19-12 by Fiji in their fifth-place semi-final at the HSBC Cape Town sevens where they finished joint eighth.
England trailed 12-0 at the break but came roaring back immediately after half-time with a try from Tom Bowen while Dan Norton also scored in the corner – his fourth try of the tournament as Tom Mitchell’s conversion levelled the score.
However, a late Fiji score in added time sealed victory.
Earlier, England were beaten 17-12 by New Zealand in the quarter-finals of the Cup in South Africa. Simon Amor’s side progressed through to the quarter-finals courtesy of pool victories over Uganda, Argentina and Scotland on day one.
They led 7-5 at the break through Ruaridh McConnochie’s try and Tom Mitchell’s conversion. McConnochie went over for a second try to give England a 12-5 lead but New Zealand came back immediately with a try.
Mitchell was yellow carded with a minute remaining and that gave New Zealand the man advantage and the overlap they needed to go over in the corner and win it late on.
Reflecting on the team’s performance, England Sevens head coach Simon Amor said: “It’s disappointing to lose the last play in both games today but once again the effort has been tremendous from the players.
“We’ve just made too many errors and our decision making hasn’t been good enough at critical moments.”
Looking ahead to the third leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in Sydney on 26-28 January 2018, Amor added: “We’ve got a couple of guys coming back from injury so that will help bolster the squad.
“We were certainly very rusty coming into these tournaments and you can see that in our performances, so the priority will be trying to work on reducing the number of errors we’ve made which has been high over the past two weekends.
“Most importantly, it’s about maintaining that attitude to go out there and keep working hard for each other.”
England Sevens squad for Cape Town:
Tom Bowen, Phil Burgess, Richard de Carpentier, Will Edwards, Harry Glover, Charlie Hayter, Ollie Lindsay-Hague, Ruaridh McConnochie, Tom Mitchell, Dan Norton, James Rodwell, Ethan Waddleton.
13th man: Will Glover
Pool C results
Saturday 9 December
England 36 – 0 Uganda
Tries: H. Glover (2), Norton (2), Burgess, Lindsay-Hague (2), McConnochie
England 24 – 7 Argentina
Tries: H. Glover, Norton (2), Hayter
England 12 – 7 Scotland
Tries: Mitchell, McConnochie
Knock-out stage results
Sunday 10 December
England 12 – 17 New Zealand
Tries: McConnochie (2)
England 12 – 19 Fiji
Tries: Bowen, Norton
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