Canada tie New Zealand, USA into Cup Quarters

The opening day of Round 2 of the HSBC Sevens Series in Cape Town saw a few surprise results, none more than Canada’s 19-all draw with New Zealand. Pat Kay’s conversion of a late Justin Douglas try made for a tense finale but neither side would come away with the win. The performance came against Canada’s run of form that saw them drop their opening match 33-10 to England and suffer a 43-14 blowout loss to Argentina to end the day.

Argentina played reasonably well but the tough draw in Pool C meant they had to topple one of the top guns to make the Cup finals, and they fell just short. New Zealand were too much to handle in match one as they coasted by 26-12. England was a real battle and when Domingo Miotti converted the late score from Germán Schulz it looked like Argentina might squeak home by two points. It was not to be however as Dan Norton, as he often does, spoiled the party with his own divine intervention and England were through with the 19-14 win.

It was a much better day for Eagles fans. While home side South Africa emerged the team to beat with three dominant victories, the USA gave a decent account of themselves against the Blitzbokke and earned a crucial 19-0 opening win over Australia that virtually assured them a spot in the Cup Quarter Finals. The win over Russia to end their day was a formality and the Eagles will now face Scotland in their first knock-out match on Day Two.

The Scots were perhaps the surprise package of Day One as they narrowly defeated Samoa and Wales to head through to the Cup finals undefeated. Fiji cruised through Pool B where Kenya also advanced following their surprisingly comfortable win over France. Australia were most disappointed as they failed to score a single point against the USA and were outclassed by South Africa in the final match of the day.

The knock-out stages on Day Two kick off at 10:36am local time, 3:36am Eastern on Sunday with all matches streamed live by World Rugby.

 

DAY ONE RESULTS

POOL A
Australia 0 – 19 USA
South Africa 41 – 0 Russia
Australia 36 – 0 Russia
South Africa 28 – 10 USA
USA 26 – 17 Russia
South Africa 29 – 7 Australia

POOL B
France 14 – 33 Kenya
Fiji 33 – 7 Japan
France 50 – 7 Japan
Fiji 28 – 22 Kenya
Kenya 24 – 5 Japan
Fiji 28 – 19 France

POOL C
New Zealand 26 – 12 Argentina
England 33 – 10 Canada
New Zealand 19 – 19 Canada
England 19 – 14 Argentina
Argentina 43 – 14 Canada
England 7 – 33 New Zealand

POOL D
Scotland 21 – 19 Samoa
Wales 29 – 7 Uganda
Scotland 38 – 7 Uganda
Wales 17 – 0 Samoa
Samoa 29 – 5 Uganda
Wales 21 – 24 Scotland

 

DAY TWO FIXTURES

Dec 11 – 10:36 local, 03:36 ET – TROPHY QF – Australia vs Uganda
Dec 11 – 10:58 local, 03:58 ET – TROPHY QF – Argentina vs Japan
Dec 11 – 11:20 local, 04:20 ET – TROPHY QF – Samoa vs Russia
Dec 11 – 11:42 local, 04:42 ET – TROPHY QF – France vs Canada

Dec 11 – 12:04 local, 05:04 ET – CUP QF – South Africa vs Wales
Dec 11 – 12:26 local, 05:26 ET – CUP QF – New Zealand vs Kenya
Dec 11 – 12:48 local, 05:48 ET – CUP QF – Scotland vs USA
Dec 11 – 13:10 local, 06:10 ET – CUP QF – Fiji vs England