Norton tops England try list despite Kiwi bashing
DAN Norton became England Sevens’ alltime leading try scorer but his side have a mountain to climb on day two of the Cape Town Sevens.
The historic day started well with Norton scoring in each of the two opening wins over Canada (33-10) and Argentina (19-14) to take his career tally on the World Series to 221 tries and overtake Ben Gollings’ record of 220.
The former Hartpury College flyer is now third on the all time list behind Argentina’s Santiago Gomez Cora and Kenya’s Colins Injera who have 230 and 235 to their name.
But Simon Amor’s men, hampered by two secondhalf yellow cards, ended the day with a crushing 337 defeat to New Zealand meaning they finished second in Pool C and have to face Olympic champions and reigning World Series champions Fiji in the last eight.
It wasn’t the only record Gollings lost yesterday as James Rodwell overtook him playing in his 71st tournament – he also is third in the all-time list.
“It was an up and down day for us with the first two games being really good but the last one against New Zealand was frustrating,” said forward Rodwell.
“We made a couple of mistakes and played most of the second half with six men. We definitely have some work to do going into day two.”
A try by England captain Tom Mitchell and one from Sherwin Stowers for New Zealand had the score levelled at 7-7 at the break but two yellow cards in the second half cost England dearly.
Dan Bibby and Rodwell were the ones going to the bin and the Kiwis scored four tries through a brace from DJ Fordes, one from Tim Mickelson and a penalty try.
The other big clash of day one saw Scotland and Wales lock horns and it was Scotland who came out on top.
Both sides made it to the quarter-finals as tries from Dougie Fife, Nick McLennan, Joe Nayacavou and a penalty try sent the Scots on their way to a 24-21.
Wales came close with three tries of their own, a double from Owen Jenkins and one from Morgan Williams, but two early yellow cards to Jenkins and Stefan Andrew had them chasing the game from 19-0 down.
Wales will now have to tackle hosts South Africa in the quart-finals while Scotland face the USA, who beat Australia to reach the play-offs.