Saturday 1 December 2007

Samoa 19 England 26

England Hunt for glory

England arrived at today’s Emirates Airline Dubai sevens full of passion and determination. After a shaky first day, the England young guns wanted to show their fans just what they were capable of and in the quarter final this afternoon they did. It was Simon Hunt (Ebbw Vale) who stole the show in true England style with a last minute dash to the tryline for the win.

It was Bristol Rugby’s Anthony Elliott who kicked off the try scoring with a sweeping run from the halfway line towards the Samoan tryline to claim his fourth of the tournament, Ben Foden (Sale Sharks) finished off with a conversion under the posts sending England into the lead 7-0.

England’s lead lasted just two minutes as Samoa scored their first try and conversion of the match, and another two minutes later but failed to convert taking the scoreboard to 7-12. Just before half time, England’s Tom Guest (Harlequins) received a fine pass from Isoa Damudamu (Newbury Blues) sending him speeding towards the tryline to score his first try of the tournament, Foden converted and at the break the scores stood at 12-14.

Bristol’s Anthony Elliott came back from half time to score his second try of the match, Foden failed to convert. Samoa answered back with a try and conversion to take the score to 19 apiece in the fourth minute. England gained possession and looked for a break in Samoa’s defence, Isoa Damudamu passed the ball to Simon Hunt (Ebbw Vale) Simon jumped to catch it and ran down the wing towards Samoa’s tryline fending off two Samoans to make it over the line just as the buzzer went for full time, Foden converted and England were through to the semi-finals.

Coach Ben Ryan said, “Yesterday we felt that we had let ourselves down a little bit. Today I told them that they need to show that they are proud to wear the white shirt, I told them if they don’t make it in England Sevens then they may not make it to any other England squad, everyone was disappointed yesterday.

“Today they stuck at it and played well against the Hong Kong champions, our form was better and we learned from yesterday’s mistakes. We’re now in the semi-finals the goal is to win the next game reach the final.

England play Fiji in the semi-final today (1 December) at 6.20pm (local time GMT + 4)

England:

Andy Vilk (Sale Sharks), Isoa Damudamu (Newbury Blues), Jack Adams (Gloucester Rugby), Tom Guest (Harlequins), Ben Foden (Sale Sharks), Simon Hunt (Ebbw Vale), Anthony Elliott (Bristol Rugby)
Replacements: Matt Banahan (Bath Rugby), Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers), Joe Simpson (London Wasps), John Brake (Northampton Saints), Liam Gibson (Plymouth Albion),

Referee: James Bolabiu

For further information on England Sevens go to www.rfu.com/sevens

Ends