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Double try scorer John Brake

England opened their Rugby World Cup Sevens campaign with a hard-fought and physical 21-7 victory against Portugal at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on Friday.

In sweltering conditions that were nearing 40 degrees Celsius, Ben Ryan’s side came back from 7-7 at half-time to win comfortably in the end.

England, who are coming into the RWC on the back of two recent third places finishes in the HSBC World Series and a European Grand Prix win, took a little time to settle in but the likes of Dan Norton and Marcus Watson looked dangerous on the wings with some good breaks.

Norton and Watson were at the heart of the first score with a good break by Norton who then offloaded to Watson. Watson lost his footings on the counter attack but Norton was in support to gather up and break clean through Portugal’s defence. England’s top scorer this season looked set to score another but an unselfish offload put John Brake through to score England’s first try of the World Cup. Christian Lewis Pratt added the extras.

Portugal, however, soon hit back and a quick tap from Miguel Lucus saw him barge his way over the try line to score. With the conversion added the score was tied at the break.

England’s superior fitness told in the second-half as Ryan’s men pulled away. Norton again came close with a chip through that was just too long to finish off before Brake soon added his second after some good interplay between James Rodwell and Norton. Brake then found space and ran in to put England 14-7 ahead when Lewis-Pratt added the conversion.

Tom Mitchell rounded off day one for England after some good work in the set-piece saw Mat Turner offload to Mitchell who found space to score England’s third. Lewis-Pratt was as consistent as ever with the boot to hand England the 21-7 victory.

Head Coach Ryan said: “It’s great to get day one out of the way with a win under our belt. Match days with just one game are long hard days when you know you have just got to empty the tank.

“Portugal played well and they were tough in the breakdown. We have certainly got room for improvement and I think if we had done two or three things better today then we would have won by a bigger margin.

“Hong Kong are next up for us and we’ll be focusing all our energies now on that game. It is tough in these humid conditions and the pitch was cutting up a little too, but actually the boys came off the pitch feeling fresh and raring to go again.”

Fixtures & Results:

Friday, June 28

England 21 Portugal 7

Tries: Brake (2), Mitchell

Conversions: Lewis-Pratt (3)

Saturday, June 29

England v Hong Kong, live on www.rwcsevens.com, KO 8.34am BST

England v Argentina, live on Sky Sports 3 (Red Button), 2.48pm BST

Sunday, June 30

TBC – All games live on Sky Sports 3 (Red Button)

England Men through to RWC 7s Quarter-Finals


Try scorer Mat Turner

England Men are through to the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup Sevens where they will face Australia on Sunday at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, kick off 10:44am BST.

Ben Ryan’s side booked their place in the final eight after a tense final pool match against Argentina which saw Los Pumas score two tries in the second-half and come within a whisker of taking the victory. England held firm though to ensure their place in the final eight.

After an unbeaten run in the pool stages England play Australia, a side that finished eighth in the World Series, two places adrift of England this season. England and Australia has clashed four times this season on the HSBC World Series circuit with both teams taking two wins apiece setting up a thrilling quarter-final clash.

England opened their RWC 7s campaign with a 21-7 win over Portugal on Friday. They were held to a 7-7 tie at half-time, but the second-half went all England’s way with their superior fitness shining through. Dan Norton came close to scoring with a chip through that was just too long to finish off before John Brake added his second try after some good interplay between James Rodwell and Norton.

Tom Mitchell rounded off the win for England after some good work in the set-piece saw Mat Turner offload to Mitchell who found space to score England’s third.

England then kept the momentum going with a moral boosting 38-7 victory against Hong Kong in their first game of the day today.

Hong Kong enjoyed a better first half, with Yiu Kam Shing scoring first whilst England conceded needless penalties. England clawed their way back in with Mitchell running clear to level the scores at half-time.

But England came back in impressive form in the second half, running in five tries. First-up Norton shows his turn of speed to make it 14-0 with Christian Lewis-Pratt converting. Tom Powell then added an excellent try, showing superb pace while John Brake scored on his first touch of the ball. Norton then added his second to seal the win.

Next-up was Argentina and England looked comfortable in the first-half as they took a 14-0 lead with Turner and Norton scoring. But the second-half was a different matter and Argentina hit back through Francisco Merello and Javier Rojas who scored two tries. Fortunately for England, Rojas only struck one of the two conversions and England scrapped through.

Ryan said: “We had two good games against Portugal and Hong Kong but our last match against Argentina was a bit of a mixed bag for us. We started ok, going two scores up and we were in good shape at half-time but then we gave away the ball too much in the second half and did not make the decision we’d have liked. That let them back in and put us under the cosh a little at the end.

“As a coach at the end of the day all we want is to get into the quarter-finals and we have done that. It is simple on Sunday we have got to be gold standard. If we tick those boxes, we know we can win. We have got an awesome bench and no one is injured. It’s hot and muggy here but the lads have got on with it and all our information is telling us that we are in good nick.”

Fixtures & Results:

Friday, June 28

England 21 Portugal 7

Tries: Brake (2), Mitchell

Conversions: Lewis-Pratt (3)

Saturday, June 29

England 38 Hong Kong 7

Tries: Mitchell, Norton (2), Brake, Powell,

England 14 Argentina 12

Tries: Turner, Norton

Conversions: Lewis-Pratt

Sunday, June 30

England v Australia, RWC Quarter-Final, KO 10:44am BST

England

Tom Powell

James Rodwell

Mike Ellery

Rob Vickerman (C)

Jeffrey Williams

John Brake

Mat Turner

Tom Mitchell

Christian Lewis-Pratt

Marcus Watson

Dan Norton

Mark Odejobi

Watson struggles in the rain-soaked conditions

England couldn’t go all the way in the Rugby World Cup Sevens Final when World Series champions New Zealand outclassed Ben Ryan’s side at a rain-soaked Luzkniki Stadium in Moscow on Sunday evening.

World Champions New Zealand ran in an impressive four tries in a 33-0 victory against an England team who defied all odds to get to the final in the first place.

England headed to Moscow on the back of a sixth place finish in the World Series and although they had the momentum behind them with third place finishes in both Glasgow and London as well as an European title the Final was just one step too far for this young evolving team.

Ryan said: “As a Head Coach of course I am disappointed with the final result but over the last three days I have been so proud of these lads. We have had a hard year and we have finished strongly. A lot of things went right this week in that we have won five games and we hit a World Cup Final for the first time in 20 years.

“New Zealand played well in the first half whilst we didn’t get out of our own half and didn’t execute what we said we were going to do. We then played a little conservatively in the second half when we were playing catch-up but the boys will learn from this. There are so many young players in our squad and they’ll be around for a long time. These lads have played in a World Cup Final, we’ve had two third place finishes in the last couple of months and an European title so we have actually got a lot to be proud of.

“New Zealand are at the top of their game with some world class players at the best they’ll ever be. They have hit vintage and this will probably be their best year ever. Our side is on the up, our lads are in their early 20s and I am sure they will be in more World Cup, Commonwealth and World Series finals.”

With the final delayed by some 40 minutes because of a torrential thunder storm, both New Zealand and England initially struggled in the waterlogged conditions. In the end some scrappy ball from a line-out saw Sherwin Stowers break free and Tim Mikkelson score under the posts for New Zealand’s first try.

New Zealand continued to look dangerous with the ball in hand whilst England struggled for possession. England then lost their own line-out and Tomasi Cama stretched out to score. Mikkelson soon grabbed his brace and New Zealand’s third try to go 21-0 up at half-time.

With a mountain to climb after the restart England did well to keep New Zealand at bay for several minutes but in the end Waisake Naholo went over with relative ease. A final try, seconds after the final hooter for Gillies Kaka, handed New Zealand the victory.

England booked their place in the World Cup final after a thrilling 12-5 victory over Kenya in more rain-soaked conditions.

England put Kenya under intense pressure from the first whistle. It was going all England’s way and a series of scrums saw Kenya turned over and Christian Lewis-Pratt set-up skipper Rob Vickerman who then executed a spot on offload to try scorer Dan Norton.

Norton then added his second when a loose ball saw England chip ahead, the ball was kicked on and Norton was on the end of it.

Kenya came close to scoring just before the break but a great cover tackle by Tom Mitchell saved any score then, but they did hit back in the second-half when a loose ball popped out and Biko Adema charged up-field. John Brake couldn’t match his speed and Adema went over. Kenya couldn’t convert and although they went close again England held on for the vital win.

England advanced into the semi-finals with a nerve-wracking 21-17 victory over Australia. After starving the Wallabies of possession in the opening seven minutes and racing into a 21-0 lead, England appeared to be a safe bet for the last four, until the game turned completely on its head with Australia claiming every try-restart after the break. Crucially, after opening the scoring with the game’s first play, fly half Christian Lewis-Pratt converted all three England tries, which ultimately made the difference.

Fixtures & Results:

RWC Final: England 0 New Zealand 33

RWC Semi-Final: England 12 Kenya 5

Tries: Norton (2)

Conversions: Lewis-Pratt

RWC Quarter-Final: England 21 Australia 17

Tries: Lewis-Pratt, Williams, Vickerman

Conversions: Lewis-Pratt (3)

Pool Games:

England 21 Portugal 7

Tries: Brake (2), Mitchell

Conversions: Lewis-Pratt (3)

England 38 Hong Kong 7

Tries: Mitchell, Norton (2), Brake, Powell,

England 14 Argentina 12

Tries: Turner, Norton

Conversions: Lewis-Pratt

England

Tom Powell

James Rodwell

Mike Ellery

Rob Vickerman (C)

Jeffrey Williams

John Brake

Mat Turner

Tom Mitchell

Christian Lewis-Pratt

Marcus Watson

Dan Norton

Mark Odejobi

All in all a more than satisfactory tournament for England, but the final was bis v men, England never got look in and kicked away most possession, very rarely a successful 7's tactic.

Men's final was outclassed by Women's final. NZ v Canada, some superb skills, game played on quagmire in pouring rain, lots of chucking ball around and only 4 handling errors all game. NZ proved too strong after Canada seemed to have gained momentum towards end of game.

Unhappiness, where's when I was young
And we didn't give a damn
'Cause we were raised
To see life as a fun and take it if we can