March 30, 2008

England bow out of Hong Kong

Samoa 17 – 12 England

England’s bid to beat Samoa a second time in as many days failed today at the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens taking them out of the competition.

England had already beaten Samoa in the Pool stages of day two in a nail-biting match but Samoa qualified as a best second-place team on points difference, meaning that England would have to face them once again, this time in the Cup quarter final.

The England young guns started well with Bristol Rugby’s Anthony Elliott scoring the first try from a Ben Gollings chip (Sunnybank) but Samoa answered back just before the break catching a deflected ball to charge over the line.

Andy Vilk was first over the tryline after the restart and a Ben Gollings conversion put England ahead 7-12. Samoa took their opportunities and before long scored two tries in quick succession leaving England trailing with no time to spare.

Said Coach Ben Ryan, “We knew that they would defend till the death and that’s exactly what they did today. I’m hugely disappointed that we didn’t go through and put ourselves in the semi final.

“This young side has developed very quickly, probably more quickly then I expected. I woke up today thinking that we could win Hong Kong but like I said last night Sevens is on a knife edge, yesterday we were the right side, today we were on the wrong.”

England: John Brake (Northampton Saints), Matthew Cox (Worcester Warriors), Anthony Elliott (Bristol Rugby), Andy Vilk (Sale Sharks), Kevin Barrett (Exeter Chiefs), Ben Gollings (Sunnybank), Simon Hunt (Ebbw Vale).

Replacements: Noah Cato (Saracens), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers), James Collins (Worcester Warriors).

Englandscorers: Anthony Elliott (t), Andy Vilk (t), Ben Gollings (c).

England now head to Adelaide for the Adelaide Sevens on the 5 & 6 April.