Tournament big guns Samoa overwhelmed Italy as fellow favorites New Zealand and Fiji crushed weaker opponents to get off to convincing starts at the Hong Kong Sevens yesterday.
Samoan Fautua Otto scored the tournament’s opening try two minutes into the curtain-raiser, touching down in the corner against Italy.
Further tries from Ofisa Treviranus, Mikaele Pesamino, Uale Mai and Simaika Mikaele made it a comfortable outing for the Samoans, although they did not have it all their own way, with Italians Riccardo Pavan and Andrea Bacchetti both crossing the line to make the final score 40-12.
New Zealand cruised to an easy win over Taiwan with tries from Save Tokula and Zar Lawrence in the opening two minutes before a 70-yard break from Toby Arnold, made the score 19-0.
Fritz Lee took a clever reverse pass to cross over between the posts and stretch the lead before half-time.
Taiwan offered little by way of resistance as the Kiwis piled on the agony with fluent, accurate passing and clinical finishing, but the Asian side, who made their Hong Kong debut in 1984, managed a breakaway try midway through the second half.
Kurt Baker, the game’s top-scorer with 19 points, replied for the Kiwis with three minutes to go, however, with a smart diagonal break and before DJ Forbes and Nafi Tuitavake added two more to make the final score 59-5.
Fiji notched up the biggest total of the first pool matches, thrashing Thailand 82-7 with tries from eight players including a Setefano Cakau hat-trick and braces from Waisale Beci and Niumaia Rokobuli.
Sarayuth Thiengtrong’s single try did little to spare Thailand’s blushes, with the Southeast Asian minnows missing seven tackles and breaking into their opponents’ 22 just once in a one-sided encounter.
England dismissed hosts Hong Kong 45-0 in a clinical demonstration of pacy try-scoring and aggressive defense, with new boy Oliver Lindsay-Hague and sub Nick Royle crossing the line twice each.
“That was a better start for us than in Adelaide. We came out fighting. We had power and pace on the ball and we did what we do in training,” Lindsay-Hague said.
The Harlequins player, who made his debut in the Las Vegas leg last month, said he believed England have what it takes to win the tournament.
Ben Gollings, the all-time leading points scorer in the series, said: “That was a good first run-out and the boys applied themselves well. We came out to dominate and we were good in every facet.”
Biggest roars of the day were reserved for China’s Jin Ye and Li Yang, who edged the underdogs into an unlikely 12-7 lead against Australia in a plucky performance which, in the end, was not enough to see them through, the antipodeans running in 45-12 winners.
Australia coach Michael O’Connor said: “China played particularly well and put on the pressure. They scored a couple of good tries. I thought we controlled possession better in the second half.”
Kenya ran in 51-7 winners against Korea, with Humphrey Kayange and Collins Injera scoring two tries each.
Hong Kong is the sixth stop on the eight-leg Sevens World Series with further events to come in England and Scotland.
Sevens rugby will make its debut as an Olympic sport in the 2016 summer Games in Rio.
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