Heavyweights Fiji and New Zealand lost pool matches though they did enough to join unbeaten England and South Africa in the quarter-finals of the rugby Dubai Sevens on Friday.
Portugal, Wales and Zimbabwe were responsible for some of the surprises on an upset-laden opening day in the sevens world series, and despite winning two matches each, the trio missed out on the last eight.
Yesterday, Fiji were due to meet France, defending champion England played Canada, South Africa faced Samoa and New Zealand tackled Australia.
PHOTO: AFP
Fiji, last season's world champion, lost to Australia 19-14 for the first time in four years. The Australians left behind 19 of their regular sevens squad because of a pay dispute and brought 11 newcomers, who lost their opener to Portugal 12-10. But Australia came from behind to end a 12-game losing run against Fiji, and finished runner-up in Pool A.
"Fantastic," Australia coach Glen Ella said. "At the start of the day we played like a side that had just been cobbled together, which we pretty much had been. We improved against Kenya but I wasn't sure enough to beat Fiji."
New Zealand accounted for Wales and Arabian Gulf but lost its last Pool D outing to Samoa 10-7. Samoa was rocked early on by Wales 17-14 but ultimately edged Wales on points difference to advance.
England ran through Scotland 38-0, Zimbabwe 29-0 and France 19-7 in Pool B. Because the latter margin was less than 15 points, Zimbabwe missed out on the quarter-finals. Zimbabwe had notched its first defeat of France 19-7.
South Africa also swept Pool C with defeats of Canada 47-5 and Tunisia 33-12, and compounded Argentina's misery 40-7.
"We wanted to get over the first hurdles today and have a say in the Cup," South Africa captain Kabamba Floors said. "It's been a long time since we won Dubai and we want to focus, get into the Cup final, and give it a chance. For us it's not about the other teams, it's about how good we can become."
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