International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens World Series champions New Zealand have gone unbeaten on day one along with Wales, while the 'group of death' between South Africa, Australia, Scotland and Argentina continues to provide the anticipated competitive edge at Murrayfield.

South Africa started with a draw against the Pumas before Scotland beat Australia convincingly but Stefan Basson's long range penalty drop kick at the death handed the Boks a 22-21 win against the Scots. All four sides, though, can still qualify for the Cup quarter finals after Australia's tenacious display to beat the Pumas.
Behind confirmed Series champions New Zealand the race is on for second place in the final standings between South Africa (98 points), Fiji (90) and London winners Samoa (88).

Quarter final line-up: New Zealand v Argentina Fiji v Samoa Wales v France South Africa v England

We take a look at all the Day One action!

Pool A: (New Zealand, England, Russia, Portugal)

New Zealand's newlook squad finished unbeaten on day one, starting in clinical fashion against Russia with newcomers Ben Nowell and David Smith both touching down for two tries in a 43-0 win, before Gordon Tietjens' men saw off Portugal 28-0 and came from behind to beat England 21-12 with debutant Tim Mikkelson crossing for the decisive score.

England also qualified for the Cup quarter finals, on points difference over Russia. Ben Ryan's men kicked off their campaign with a win, Uche Oduoza grabbing two tries against Portugal, before struggling to a lucky 17-17 draw against Russia - Yury Kushnarev narrowly missed his conversion to win for Russia - and losing against New Zealand. Russia earlier beat Portugal 19-12 in a fine match to finish third in the pool.

Results: Match 1: New Zealand 45 - Russia 0 Match 2: England 22 - Portugal 0 Match 9: New Zealand 28 - Portugal 0 Match 10: England 17 - Russia 17 Match 17: Russia 19 - Portuga 12 Match 20: New Zealand 21 - England 12

Pool B: (South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Scotland)

Having beaten hosts Scotland with the last kick of the match, South Africa went on to top the group by beating Australia 17-12. Danwel Demas scored twice for the Boks and Stefan Basson once as they built a 17-12 lead and then held on as Australia hit back through Andrew Walker and Shawn MacKay but it was too little too late.

Scotland also proceed to the Cup quarter finals on day two after drawing their final match 17-17 with the feisty Argentinians, who had two players yellow carded and one sent off in the second half.

Earlier Santiago Gomez Cora touched down twice as the Pumas overturned a 19-0 deficit to fight back against the Boks, and South Africa looked dead and buried against Scotland, 19-21 down with the final hooter gone, before Stefan Basson nervelessly landed a penalty drop goal from the 10-metre line to crush the Scots and hand the Boks a priceless 22-21 win.

The Scots had opened their account with a 33-7 over Australia, Jim Thompson the star with a brace of tries, before Argentina played out their thrilling 19-19 draw with the Boks.

Results: Match 7: South Africa 19 - Argentina 19 Match 8: Australia 7 - Scotland 33 Match 15: South Africa 22 - Scotland 21 Match 16: Australia 19 - Argentina 12 Match 23: South Africa 17 - Australia 12 Match 24: Argentina 17 - Scotland 17

Pool C: (Samoa, Wales, Canada, Spain)

Wales topped Pool C after beating London Sevens champions of last week Samoa 24-14 in the group's final match, Tal Selley touching down twice for Gareth Baber's men. Tries from James Lewis had helped them to two opening wins against Spain and Canada.

Samoa earlier needed all of their fighting qualities to see off first Canada 24-17 in their opening match and then Spain 24-5 to also qualify for the Cup quarters on day two. Alatasi Tupou scored a hat-trick of tries for the islanders in their opener and Timoteo Iosua crossed twice in their win against gallant Spain.

Spain capped off an impressive day by beating Series regulars Canada 24-10 to get a favourable draw for the Bowl on day two.

Results: Match 3: Samoa 24 - Canada 17 Match 4: Wales 31 - Spain 7 Match 11: Samoa 24 - Spain 5 Match 12: Wales 24 - Canada 7 Match 18: Canada 10 - Spain 24 Match 21: Samoa 14 - Wales 24

Pool D: (Fiji, Kenya, France, Moldova)

Fiji went unbeaten on day one with three relatively two easy wins against France, Moldova and Kenya. The Fijians ran riot against France, Setefano Cakau scoring two of their six tries in a 42-7 win before they scored eight more against Moldova, Iliavi Satala and Timoci Matanavou each scoring a brace and were then far too strong for the Africans, Matanavou again impressive.

In beating the Kenyans, Fiji also sent France through to a first Cup quarter final of the season. The French earlier beat Kenya, Vincent Roux's late try sealing the French win and also ran in seven unanswered tries against Moldova, Nicolas Carmona scoring a hat trick in the 47-0 win.

Results: Match 5: Fiji 42 - France 7 Match 6: Kenya 22 - Moldova 5 Match 13: Fiji 52 - Moldova 7 Match 14: Kenya 12 - France 22 Match 19: France 47 - Moldova 0 Match 22: Fiji 38 - Kenya 7

Day Two - June 1:

Bowl quarterfinals: Match 25: Russia v Australia, 10.15 Match 26: Kenya v Canada, 10.37 Match 27: Spain v Moldova, 10.59 Match 28: Argentina v Portugal, 11.21

Cup quarterfinals: Match 29: New Zealand v Scotland, 11.43 Match 30: Fiji v Samoa, 12.05 Match 31: Wales v France, 12.27 Match 32: South Africa v England, 12.49

This article was posted on 31-May-2008, 18:53 by Hugh Barrow.