NZ face Fiji in LA sevens quarters

New Zealand face Fiji in tomorrow's quarterfinals after sweeping aside the challengers of their pool opponents on the first day of the Los Angeles international sevens rugby tournament today.

Their line was crossed just once in three pool games today and though the scores indicated a breeze for them, coach Gordon Tietjens said his team worked hard to ensure a settled approach to the playoffs.

Without captain Liam Messam and try-scoring winger Roy Kinikinilau, both injured in last week's Wellington tournament, the New Zealanders beat Scotland 43-0, Uruguay 31-5 and Samoa 26-0.

"Fiji always gets better as the tournament progresses and they showed that in Wellington last week," Tietjens told NZPA today.

"It's going to be a real test for us tomorrow."

New Zealand beat Fiji 26-7 in pool play last week before the Fijians' progress was halted by Argentina in the semifinals. New Zealand beat Argentina in the final to maintain their lead in the International Rugby Board series with 52 points.

Fiji were second with 44, followed by England 36, Argentina 34 and South Africa 32.

Tietjens said he allowed all the players in his squad, including newcomers Jason Hona (Bay of Plenty) and Brent Wilson (North Harbour), at least one full game today.

"They did step up as I had expected them to," Tietjens said.

Though reluctant to single out players, Tietjens said Tamati Ellison, who displayed his sevens potential last week, appeared to go from strength to strength each time he stepped on the field.

In the other quarterfinals matches tomorrow England play Samoa, Australia, who upset South Africa in pool play today, meet France and Argentina face South Africa.

The New Zealanders will play the winners of the Australia-France match in the semifinals if they beat Fiji tomorrow.

In pool A England and Fiji qualified today, New Zealand and Samoa from pool B, Australia and South Africa from pool C and Argentina and France from pool D.

Australia perhaps pulled off the result of the day when they thumped South Africa 26-0.

Earlier Tonga had almost caused the upset of the tournament against Fiji in both sides' second matches when leading 17-10 with seconds to go.

But Fiji managed to get themselves out of jail with a last-gasp converted try to level 17-17 and keep their chances alive.

Tonga were ruing a simple missed conversion later.

Tonga's strong performance against Marika Vunibaka's Fijians did put England's earlier tight victory in some perspective, and Pete Richards later led England to a 52-7 win over the West Indies, with James Bailey showing an impressive turn of pace to be among the scorers.

Argentina got their title defence off to a sound start with two victories over Kenya 19-0 and Mexico 59-0.

However experts judged New Zealand to be the class act of the day with a comprehensive win in their pool.

South Africa survived a scare against Canada (21-14) before improving to beat hosts, the United States, 43-7.

Tomorrow's quarterfinals:

England v Samoa, Argentina v South Africa, Australia v France, NZ v Fiji.

- NZPA