England beat Fiji 28-26 and retained the Dubai Sevens rugby title on Friday in the season-opening leg of the World Series.
Led by its latest sevens recruit and player of the tournament, winger Tom Varndell, and the experienced Ben Gollings, England rallied twice to spoil Fiji's plans to avenge defeat in last year's final.
Fiji opened its account in the second minute through the brilliant Jone Daunivucu, who earlier scored a last-minute try in the quarterfinals for his team to upset top-seeded New Zealand 17-14.
Varndell, who scored a tournament-leading 10 tries, side-stepped Epeli Dranivasa and Vima Tuidraki before touching down and leveling at 7-7.
Fiji went ahead in the fifth minute through a Mika Leawere try, but back-to-back Gollings tries with help from Henry Paul, and a remarkable sideline conversion lifted England ahead by 28-19 with just more than a minute left. It was time enough only for a consolation Fiji seven-pointer by William Ryder.
England scraped into the final after Simon Amor converted almost on the whistle following a Varndell try for a 7-5 semifinal win over Samoa. Samoa dominated the first half but couldn't break England's defense until Henry Bryce's try at the start of the second.
"There was no way we would have given this away after the way we played against Samoa," said Varndell. "It's been a great start for us in the season, but we now need to look forward to the Georgia tournament."
England coach Mike Friday praised Gollings and Varndell.
"Varndell has a fantastic future ahead of him and Gollings always rises to the occasion," he said.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS