Norton notches try record as England move into quarters

DAN Norton became the most prolific try scorer in World Sevens Series history as England booked their place in the Hong Kong Sevens quarter-finals.

The winger, below, has been chasing Colins Injera at the top of the try chart since the start of the season and he overtook the veteran Kenyan with his first touch of the ball in the 52-0 win over South Korea.

Norton then went over for try number 246 to help Simon Amor’s men snatch a 12-10 win over Samoa and secure their place in the last eight.

First place in Pool A was still in the balance though and a 12-10 defeat to Australia next up meant England finished second and would face the USA in the quarter-finals overnight.

Amor said: “It was always going to be close against Australia and fair play to them I thought they played very well and deserved the win.

“I was really pleased with our youngsters again with Charlton Kerr stepping up for his second start and game-bygame he’s really improving which is amazing when you consider that only this time last year he was still at school and now he’s playing in front of a packed stadium.”

Captain Tom Mitchell was yellow carded for three successive infringements against Australia and Henry Hutchinson took advantage crossing before the break.

Kerr then spotted space behind the Australia defence and kicked ahead for Tom Bowen to out-pace the opposition and level the score at half-time.

Hutchinson’s second in the corner made it 12-5 and despite Bowen grabbing his second midway through the half, it wasn’t enough as Dan Bibby missed the conversion to hand Australia the victory. Wales came close to creating the surprise of the tournament but had to settle for a 17-17 draw against Fiji, after a a hat-trick from Luke Morgan. But an opening defeat to New Zealand and a slim win over Japan saw them finish third in their Pool and would face France in the Challenge Cup quarter finals in the early hours of the morning.