Norton closes on try record as England take Sevens bronze
DAN Norton is within one try of becoming England Sevens’ alltime leading try scorer after his quadruple helped England beat Wales and clinch the bronze medal in Dubai yesterday.
The flyer, who is set to break the record in Cape Town next week, ended the tournament with nine to bring his career tally to 219 – one away from Ben Gollings’ 220.
Once he overtakes the former playmaker, he will no doubt have his sights on the retired Santiago Gomez Cora of Argentina and his 230, while the Series record of Kenya’s ever-green Colins Injera (235) could also fall this season.
England finished eighth in last season’s overall standings but, having formed the core of the Great Britain squad that sealed an impressive Olympics silver, took much of that form into the 2016-17 opening weekend in Dubai.
After a dramatic added-time win over Scotland in the quarter-finals, they fell to Fiji in the semis before taking on Wales to finish third after a 38-10 success.
Simon Amor’s men got off to a flyer as Richard de Carpentier showed power and pace to scamper down the left and crash over and they were two converted tries to the good moments later with Norton’s first.
Charlie Hayter then pounced on a mistake for the third though Luke Treharne got Wales on the board before half-time.
Ben Roach narrowed the gap further as Wales stormed out of the blocks in the second half – but England held a 21-10 lead after the conversion was missed.
Enter Norton and his late treble to seal the win and go into Cape Town with confidence.
Hosts South Africa will kick off their home tournament next week high in spirits too after a dominant display saw them beat Fiji 26-14 in the final.
Back to the quarterfinals, though, and Scotland, who ended last season by winning the London tournament, pushed England all the way leading 21-14 with only a few seconds to spare.
But Ollie Lindsay-Hague went over in the corner for England who decided to not take the conversion and go for the restart instead.
It paid off, as after over two minutes in added time, Ruaridh McConnochie, selected for the tournament’s dream team, dived in the same corner to snatch it in an amazing way.