Fiji stun England in Dubai final

England beat Canada in the fourth QF but went down to giant-killers Russian Federation 19-12 in a cracking semi-final.

The great drama on Friday came in Pool C, United States winger Perry Baker’s dancing feet allowing him to crash over in the corner in the last play of the last game to secure a famous 14-12 triumph against New Zealand and dump France into the Bowl on points difference.

“Beating New Zealand was the last one on the bucket list”.

Russian Federation with two quick tries threatened a boilover but their joy was short-lived as Ellia Green sprinted 50 metres on the left to score.

“I say that out of respect as, in my eyes, New Zealand is the pinnacle of rugby union”.

In the main cup grand final, Fiji scored all of their points in the first half after falling behind to an early Tom Bowen try for England.

Emilee Cherry and Gemma Etheridge were part of the Australian team that went undefeated on the way to winning the Dubai round of the Women’s World Series rugby sevens.

Ellia Green deservedly won the medal for being the Player of the Final.

The HSBC Sevens World Series defending champions beat Canada 63-14, Japan 21-17 and Argentina 28-0 to progress to the quarterfinals where they will now play second in Pool D Australia.

They defeated Australia 19-12 in their quarter-finals with tries from Kotanibau, captain Osea Kolinisau and Rawaca.

The Vodafone Fiji Sevens team will now prepare for the Cape Town Sevens that will be held next Saturday and Sunday.

Bowen said Australia was excited at the prospect of playing the world series champions. I felt we developed and were getting to what we were after, by the end of the England game.

“Henry Speight showed what an asset he’ll be to the Sevens program moving forward and against South Africa, again we had our chances”.

“We scored 16 tries today and every single one of them was converted, which is awesome”, the English coach said.

In the other quarter-finals, England take on Argentina, Samoa face New Zealand and South Africa tackle the United States.

“It’s especially frustrating because we felt coming into the tournament that although we are missing a half-dozen players from our last tournaments – Pan Am Games and Amsterdam – there was still enough quality in this side to finish better than we did”.