Watch Sonny Bill Williams’ Epic Offload In His Maiden Sevens Event

A wayward offload from late replacement Sonny Bill Williams saw South Africa pounce to take the lead.

England also advanced to the quarter-finals – where they will face Argentina – despite losing to Samoa.

With time up and New Zealand close to their tryline, a sweeping move upfield was capped when another Williams offload put Joe Webber clear 40m out and ensured the tournament defending champions made it three from three in pool play.

Yet now, as New Zealand sits well back on the ladder, it’s fair to suggest the remaining tournaments from Sydney to Vancouver, and Singapore to London would be better served preparing, honing and shaping the 12 guys to deliver the end game – the one tournament that matters in South America.

He scored a try with his only touch against Russian Federation, having come off the bench in the middle of the second half.

Indeed, although some sevens experts have argued that 15 aside players will find the transition to the shortened variation of the game hard, the double World Cup victor seems to already be making his mark.

Cheslin Kolbe then put the Blitzboks ahead – and added the conversion as well.

Fiji go on to face the United States of America in the Cup quarter-finals, after the Americans edged France 29-21 to seal the other spot in their pool behind England.

The world series defending champion Fijians unfurled the most accomplished displays, tallying 109 points to 24 in their hefty wins over pool runners-up Argentina, Wales and Japan.

New Zealand won all three of their matches to finish top of their pool on day one at the Wellington Sevens today.

New Zealand won all three matches at the Westpac Stadium to set up a quarter-final against Kenya on Sunday. Samoa had lost their first two matches in the pool to the United States and France while England had beaten France 17-14 in their opening match and the United States 19-5.

Watch the Wellington Sevens live on Sky Sports 4 HD from 10.20pm on Saturday via the Red Button, with coverage continuing on the main channel from 11pm. But it had a scare in its opening match of the day when it found itself trailing Portugal 12-0 before rallying to win 19-12.