9.00am
England again proved New Zealand's nemesis when they upstaged the defending champions 14-10 in the quarterfinals of the Welsh leg of the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens Series in Cardiff this morning.
It was the worst result of the current series for New Zealand, who head into next weekend's series finale
at Twickenham in London with a narrow 12-point lead over England. New Zealand led by 16 going into the Cardiff tournament.
New Zealand beat Fiji 38-0 in the Plate semifinal before despatching Australia 36-14 in the final.
In a day of unexpected results, England were knocked out in the Cup semifinals by South Africa, who went on to beat Argentina in the final.
"It was very disappointing, we come away to win tournaments and not to get knocked out in the quarters," New Zealand manager Tony Ward told NZPA.
Ward said the New Zealand players had come through the tournament reasonably unscathed but there were the usual knocks and niggles that would need to be assessed.
"England are a very good team, they play well and they basically kept the ball off us," Ward said.
New Zealand met England earlier than expected after the English had been shock losers to hosts Wales in pool play, leaving the seedings in turmoil.
Today they managed to beat New Zealand with only six players after having a man sent off. Both teams scored two tries and the result came down to conversions.
"South Africa beating England in the semis was a saving grace for us," New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens said.
"Today's results showed the nature of sevens now. At any time five or six teams can win any of the tournaments, that's how close it is. It really depends on the day.
"We're leaving for Twickenham and going into the final tournament 12 points ahead of England. We were quite lucky only to drop four points on them (in Wales). So it's really a big one coming up for us to get right through and win Twickenham."
England beat New Zealand, who have won the last three IRB Sevens Series', 22-17 in the Hong Kong sevens final two months ago.
- NZPA
