England get sevens lesson from All Blacks

England were crushed 26-5 by New Zealand in the final of the Singapore Sevens.

The All Blacks were far superior and used their pace and strength to rattle England early and they never recovered or threatened in a one-sided final.

England started strongly but a knock-on by Ben Gollings turned over possession and man-of-the-tournament Amasio Valence sent Tafai Ioasa away for a long-range try.

The All Blacks shifted a gear and soon had England in trouble as Orene Ai’I danced around the defence to send the six-time IRB Sevens Series champions 14-0 up.

Liam Messam crossed soon after to leave the English bewildered at their lack of defence against the creative All Blacks attackers.

After the break Ai’I stretched the lead to 26-0 with a try in the corner before England finally got onto the board when Dan Hipkiss kneed the ball ahead and collected to score.

But that was too little too late as New Zealand won their fourth consecutive sevens tournament and virtually assured themselves of their sixth consecutive IRB Sevens Series title.

Earlier England had moved into the finals after a controversial win over world champions Fiji in the semi-finals.

Fiji’s Kameli Ratuvou received a yellow card in the 13th minute of the 14-minute game for infringing at the breakdown, and England took their opportunity through a late try by Gollings to put the world champions out of the tournament.

It came after two early tries by Nasoni Roko put the Fijians 12-0 up and set for the final. But England, once they had got their composure back, started probing the Fijian defence, and found a hole through Peter Richards who sent Richard Haughton flying through for the opening try.

Both sides continued to search for the winner before referee Gary Wise of New Zealand made the call, which effectively ended the game for Fiji.

New Zealand’s Amasio Valence scored 26 of his side’s 28 points as the All Blacks beat South Africa 28-14 to make the final.

England moved into the semis after pipping Australia 17-14 in a close and tense encounter.

England started off slowly, but scored first in a game where the lead changed sides several times.

After some initial big hits by Australia, England found enough space for Will Matthews to open the scoring in the left hand corner.

But the Wallabies were not to overshadowed and hit back almost immediately when Andrew Brown broke through Gollings’ tackle to go over. Kacey Mitchell sent over the conversion to put the Wallabies ahead.

On the stroke of half-time England upped the pace and a floating pass from Gollings to Geoff Appleford saw the South African-born player sprint down the touchline to score and go into the break 10-7 ahead.

England were caught on their own line early in the second half, and the turnover resulted in Josh Gamgee putting the Wallabies back in the lead before it changed again with Richard Haughton outrunning the Australian defence.

In the other quarter-finals New Zealand swamped Scotland 31-5, South Africa outmuscled Samoa 28-5 and Fiji were too good for Argentina, winning 21-10.

Samoa won the plate by beating Australia 14-5, France beat Canada 19-12 in the bowl final while Chinese Taipei beat their mainland neighbours, China 17-10 to win the shield.