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North American sides Canada and the USA had rocky starts to their Las Vegas Sevens tournaments with neither booking their place in the Quarter Finals yet. Instead the day belonged to South America, as Argentina turned things around to win both matches while Chile went toe-to-toe with South Africa to earn a memorable draw.
Los Pumas have not been in strong form but they came through in a pair of razor-thin victories. After running up a 17-0 score by halftime, a near complete collapse saw France score three tries only to miss each conversion. Against the USA it was almost the opposite as the Eagles led 19-7 at the break but a last-gasp try from Luciano González Rizzoni tied the score and Santiago Mare’s conversion gave the Pumas the win over their hosts.
It was a disappointing result for the Eagles, who had jumped ahead late in the match thanks to a second try from Carlin Isles. The speedster also touched down twice in the USA’s opening game against Kenya. That one went according to plan with a 26-10 final score in favor of the Americans.
Canada left it late to earn a draw against Spain with Nathan Hirayama’s conversion of an Admir Cejvanovic try sealing the 12-all result. Their second match was against a confident New Zealand side. While competitive, the black jerseys ran in five tries to three with veteran Tim Mikkelson running in a double.
Chile had a slow start to the day as they were shut out 22-0 by England. They rolled up their socks, however, and threw everything at South Africa. Branco du Preez put the defending HSBC Sevens Series champions ahead in the first half but stingy defense held them off for the rest of the game. A Benjamín de Vidts try in the second half tied the game and Cóndores held on to earn the approval of the Vegas crowd.
It’s still all to play for on Day Two as the third round of the pool stage takes place mid-day before the Quarter Finals in the evening. All matches can be watched live on ESPN in the USA and South American with CBS Sports providing a live stream in Canada.
DAY ONE RESULTS
POOL A
Spain 12-12 Canada
New Zealand 33-0 Samoa
Spain 21-26 Samoa
New Zealand 33-19 Canada
POOL B
France 15-17 Argentina
USA 26-10 Kenya
France 31-7 Kenya
USA 24-26 Argentina
POOL C
South Africa 26-0 Japan
England 22-0 Chile
South Africa 5-5 Chile
England 31-12 Japan
POOL D
Australia 26-0 Wales
Fiji 36-12 Scotland
Australia 24-12 Scotland
Fiji 33-14 Wales
DAY TWO FIXTURES
Sat, Mar 2 – 11:30 local, 14:30 ET – POOL D – Wales vs Scotland
Sat, Mar 2 – 11:52 local, 14:52 ET – POOL D – Fiji vs Australia
Sat, Mar 2 – 12:14 local, 15:14 ET – POOL A – Canada vs Samoa
Sat, Mar 2 – 12:36 local, 15:36 ET – POOL A – New Zealand vs Spain
Sat, Mar 2 – 12:58 local, 15:58 ET – POOL B – Argentina vs Kenya
Sat, Mar 2 – 13:26 local, 16:26 ET – POOL B – USA vs France
Sat, Mar 2 – 13:48 local, 16:48 ET – POOL C – Japan vs Chile
Sat, Mar 2 – 14:10 local, 17:10 ET – POOL C – England vs South Africa
