Discipline England’s downfall in Toulouse 7s

SIMON Amor’s England will have to settle for a place in today’s fifth place semi-final after losing their cup quarter final 26-24 to Samoa.

Samoa opened the scoring with Uaina Sione’s try two minutes in but England hit back with Will Homer’s touchdown before Samoan Paul Scanlan was red carded for a dangerous tackle.

England utilised their numerical advantage as captain Alex Davis touched down before half-time and Freddie Roddick scored their third try.

Brian Lima’s Samoa replied through Melani Matavao’s try and things went from bad to worse for England as Tommy Bowen and Jamie Adamson were yellow carded for high tackles.

Samoa retook the lead through Vaa Apeli Maliko’s try and Vaovasa Afa Sua rubbed salt in England’s wounds as he scored directly from the restart to kill the game off before Max Clementson scored a late consolation try.

England had qualified for the quarterfinals after finishing second in Group A through a 24-5 win over Canada, a 21-10 victory over Japan and a 19-7 loss to eventual pool winners Argentina.

They will take on USA at lunchtime today in the fifth place semi-final.

Ireland are through to the semi-finals after impressive victories over World Series leaders South Africa and Spain in the pool stages followed by a 14-0 quarter final win over Argentina.

Today’s semi-finals get underway this afternoon with Fiji taking on Samoa and Ireland facing hosts France, who stole a 21-19 victory over Australia in the quarter-finals courtesy of William Iraguha’s last-gasp try.

Wales failed to qualify for the knockout stages and finished bottom of Group B after defeats to France, Fiji and Kenya.

Darren Edwards’ side ended Saturday with a heavy 28-0 defeat to New Zealand in the ninth place quarter-final and face Canada in the 13th place semi-finals this morning.

England women endured a difficult start to the tournament as they suffered a 31-12 defeat to Ireland, followed by a 33-7 defeat to hosts France on Friday.

Things failed to improve on Saturday as they fell to a 31-7 loss to Brazil and a narrow 21-19 defeat to Scotland followed in the ninth place semifinals.

Simon Middleton’s side take on Spain in the 11th place play-off tomorrow, while the cup semi-finals are Ireland vs Australia and New Zealand taking on Fiji.

Anthony Eddy’s Ireland qualified for the knockout stages through pool wins over England and Brazil, despite a 12-5 defeat to France, and in the quarter finals beat Canada 22-21.