New Zealand men's sevens team thrash England to reach Cape Town quarterfinals

England's Tom Mitchell, left, is tackled by New Zealand's defense. Photo / AP.

The embattled All Blacks Sevens have made an encouraging start to the Cape Town international tournament.

After a disappointing eighth place finish in Dubai last weekend, New Zealand topped Pool C with wins over Argentina and England sandwiching a surprise 19-all draw with Canada.

There was generally more cohesion to their attacking play and certainly less mistakes.

They were well led by veterans Tim Mikkelson and DJ Forbes, the latter scoring a brace against England as they saved their best for last, the 33-7 victory ensuring safe passage to tonight's Cup quarter-finals, where they have a winnable fixture against Kenya.

Coach Scott Waldrom was very pleased with the display against England, and believes his side is capable of even bigger things on day two.

"We were pretty disappointed by the way we played against Canada, getting up by 14 and letting them right back in it, so I'm absolutely stoked the guys got up and played the way I know they can. We know championships aren't won on day one, but if we can play like that I'll be happy. If they can play like this, we can take anyone," Waldrom said.

New Zealand's 26-12 win opening win over Argentina was highlighted by a marvellous try from a claimed kickoff by Taranaki's Iopu Iopu-Aso, but Mikkelson, who extended his New Zealand World Series record tryscoring tally to 178 by the end of the day, was also prominent.

New Zealand continued to show patience and accuracy in the first spell against Canada, racing to 14-0 before a clumsy high tackle from Dylan Collier saw him sinbinned. It was a costly error, Canada posting two tries while he was cooling his heels. When a fine offload sent Justin Douglas away, Canada had clawed back to 19-all, their first draw in 34 series meetings with New Zealand. Iopu-Aso could have stolen it at the death, but he shelled a perfectly respectable pass when a try was on.

In their final pool game against England, New Zealand made a dusty start, Sherwin Stowers binned for throwing the ball away, though he made up for that by scoring the first try. It was 7-7 at the break, but they dominated the second stanza after Dan Bibby and then James Rodwell were binned for England. Forbes completed his brace as New Zealand finally showed their full wares, controlling the ball and the tempo.

Sir Gordon Tietjens looks to have plenty of work to do with Samoa when he 'officially' takes the reins in the new year. Samoa suffered a 17-0 reverse to Wales and will only contest the Trophy quarter-finals.

Dubai Cup champions and hosts South Africa looked the most impressive on day one, topping Pool A, Fiji won Pool B, and Scotland got up to win Pool D. In the Cup quarters, the Blitzbokke will face Wales, Scotland will play USA, and Fiji clashes with England.
New Zealand's Cup quarter-final against Kenya is set for 11.26pm tonight.

Results:

New Zealand 26 (Sherwin Stowers, Tim Mikkelson, Rocky Khan, Iopu Iopu tries; Khan 3 con) Argentina 12 (Jose Barros Sosa, Fernando Luna tries; Gaston Revol con). HT: 14-7

New Zealand 19 (Sherwin Stowers, Tim Mikkelson, Sione Molia tries; Rocky Khan 2 con) Canada 19 (John Moonlight, Pat Kay, Justin Douglas, Kay 2 con). HT: 14-7

New Zealand 33 (DJ Forbes 2, Tim Mikkelson, Sherwin Stowers tries; penalty try; Rocky Khan 3 con) England 7 (Tom Mitchell try; Mitchell con). HT: 7-7