Lessons to be learnt as Amor’s England crash again

ENGLAND finished joint seventh at the World Sevens Series in Hamilton last Sunday.

After finishing second in their pool on day one, England faced hosts New Zealand and were narrowly beaten 12-19. They were then edged out by Samoa as they lost 17-22 to the side that would end up being placed fifth.

It is the second tournament in a row where England have finished joint seventh, with the next meeting at the Las Vegas leg of the series in March.

Head of England Sevens Simon Amor said: “It’s been a tough two weeks for us as a programme losing out in the quarter-final stages – we aspire to be better than that.

“We pushed New Zealand to the wire in the quarter-final and then losing out to Samoa in extra time highlights that we just got on the wrong side of some close score lines again.

“We are looking to evolve and progress our attack and defence and I’m pleased with the continual fight within the group but we made too many mistakes. It’s really important that we keep on learning, growing and finding new ways to get better.

There are some big lessons to take away and learn from these two tournaments which will give us great motivation moving forward.

“I’m really happy for Ryan Olowofela who scored his first two tries on the World Series – a great demonstration of the young talent we have coming through.”

Fiji beat World Series leaders South Africa in a thrilling final after seeing off New Zealand 14-12 in the semi-final.

England are currently sixth in the standings.

Ruaridh McConnochie put England up against New Zealand in the quarter-final but the hosts crossed twice before McConnochie got his second. But Scott Curry’s try eventually secured the win for New Zealand.

Ollie Lindsay-Hague put England ahead in the fifth place play-off against Samoa. However, despite tries from Tom Bowen and Phil Burgess England were narrowly edged out by a Samoan side that would secure fifth place by beating Kenya later on.