Saturday 8 December 2007

England’s second day in George ends in disappointment

England 35 Canada 7

England started the second day of the Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens with a 35-7 victory over Canada with Joe Simpson (London Wasps), Ben Foden (Sale Sharks) and Matt Banahan (Bath Rugby) all scoring two tries each. Joe Simpson and Andy Vilk (Sale Sharks) showed great speed whilst Isoa Damudamu (Newbury Blues) performed an outstanding piece of skill from a restart.

England 29 Australia 14

England then faced Australia in the bowl semi-final. England raced out of the blocks with three tries in the opening four minutes, but Anthony Elliott's (Bristol Rugby) sin-binning allowed their opponents back into the match. However a great solo try by Ben Foden (Sale Sharks) and another from Simon Hunt (Ebbw Vale) sealed the 29-14 victory.

England 14 Wales 21

Disappointment for England this evening as they leave the Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens empty handed.

England started the day full of promise, first by beating Canada 35-7 and then Australia 29-14 in the bowl semi-final but Wales in the final were to strong and England didn’t take there chances so lost 14-21.

Try scorers: Anthony Elliott (Bristol Rugby) (2)

Conversions: Joe Simpson (Joe Simpson) (2)

Coach Ben Ryan said, “The last two days have been full of ups and downs, we have had our good times and bad. The brightest point has been beating Canada and Australia today and nearly beating Dubai title holders New Zealand yesterday, in what was a very close game that in the end came down to two points.

To lose the bowl final is really disappointing, Wales are a good side but we let it slip through our fingers, at one point we had a ten point lead, we had chances to come back but we just didn’t take them.

Captain Andy Vilk has been an outstanding leader even under pressure. In final he led the squad without his experienced Sale Sharks’ team-mate Ben Foden, who was unavailable for the final.

Some of these inexperienced players are still learning, they have proved over the past two weeks that they’re capable of great achievements but we must learn from these mistakes. The job for us now is to keep consistency with player selection and keep improving.”

The next IRB Sevens World Series destination is New Zealand on the 1 and 2 February 2008.

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

Ends