Mixed emotions on London Day One

It was a record-setting opening day at the HSBC Sevens Series event in London that saw Fiji crowned Series Champions and Collins Injera eclipsing Santiago Gómez Cora as the all-time try scoring leader. For the Americas teams, however, the results were very much hit and miss.

Canada lost their opening fixture to South Africa but finally broke their 12-game losing streak with a victory over Samoa. It was a tense battle between two tired-looking sides with Mike Fuailefau’s try proving the match winner, much to the relief of beleaguered Canadian coach Liam Middleton. The joy would turn again to dismay as a dead-even race against the Eagles marked an improvement but not enough to get them into the Cup quarter finals. With that Canada have failed to reach the final eight in a single tournament on the 2015/16 Series calendar.

Mike Friday will have similarly mixed emotions about his US Eagles side. They stated off with a victory over Samoa and only narrowly lost to favorites South Africa, but the performances were marred with poor execution at times and abject decision making. The draw with Canada was just enough to put them into the Cup draw, where they will face New Zealand in the quarter final.

Brazil will await Canada in the Bowl quarter final, with the Olympic hosts again failing to find victory but showing moments of improvement against Argentina and Russia. Los Pumas looked composed but not quite clinical against both Russia and Brazil, and a draw against New Zealand in their final match on Day One sets them up for a difficult match against South Africa in the Cup quarter final.

All matches on Day Two will be streamed live by World Rugby.

DAY ONE RESULTS

POOL A
Samoa 5 – 12 USA
South Africa 21 – 7 Canada
Samoa 19 – 24 Canada
South Africa 14 – 10 USA
USA 12 – 12 Canada
Samoa 0 – 22 South Africa

POOL B
Australia 22 – 10 Wales
Fiji 10 – 31 England
Fiji 42 – 5 Wales
Australia 7 – 10 England
Fiji 26 – 0 Australia
England 24 – 5 Wales

POOL C
France 14 – 14 Scotland
Kenya 22 – 17 Portugal
France 45 – 14 Portugal
Kenya 12 – 24 Scotland
Scotland 31 – 14 Portugal
France 29 – 12 Kenya

POOL D
Argentina 22 – 12 Russia
New Zealand 31 – 0 Brazil
Argentina 28 – 7 Brazil
New Zealand 33 – 10 Russia
Russia 14 – 5 Brazil
Argentina 14 – 14 New Zealand

DAY TWO FIXTURES

May 22 – 04:30 ET – BOWL QF – Canada vs Brazil
May 22 – 04:52 ET – BOWL QF – Kenya vs Wales
May 22 – 05:14 ET – BOWL QF – Russia vs Samoa
May 22 – 05:36 ET – BOWL QF – Australia vs Portugal

May 22 – 05:58 ET – CUP QF – South Africa vs Argentina
May 22 – 06:20 ET – CUP QF – France vs Fiji
May 22 – 06:42 ET – CUP QF – New Zealand vs USA
May 22 – 07:04 ET – CUP QF – England vs Scotland