May 31, 2008

New Zealand 21-12 England

England through to Edinburgh Cup

Despite narrowly missing out to New Zealand in the last minutes of their final pool match, a win against Portugal and a draw against Russia was enough to send England through to the Cup quarter final at the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens.

Solomon King was first over for the All Blacks after four minutes. England quickly answered back from the re-start with Andy Vilk charging towards the touchline, passing out to Ben Gollings for him to score right under the posts and converting to settle the scores at 7-7 going into half-time.

England came back from the break to score in the first minute from their line-out, Gloucester Rugby’s Jack Adams crossing the line. New Zealand came back with two tries in quick succession both scored by Tomasi Cama to take the final score to 21-12.

Said Coach Ben Ryan: “I’m glad we have made the Cup quarter finals. We are a big match team, irrespective of who we face tomorrow, I’m looking forward to improving on our cup place from last weekend’s London 7s.”

England will play South Africa in tomorrow’s Cup quarter final at 12.49pm

England: Chris Cracknell (Cornish Pirates), Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers), Jack Adams (Gloucester Rugby), Andy Vilk (Sale Sharks, captain), Ben Gollings (Sunnybank, Australia), Uche Oduoza (Worcester Warriors), Kevin Barrett (Exeter Chiefs)

Replacements: Tom Biggs (Leeds Carnegie), Ollie Phillips (Newcastle Falcons)

Scorers: Ben Gollings (t,c), Jack Adams (t)

To follow England Sevens go to www.rfu.com/sevens

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