England Sevens win in Bucharest

England Sevens will go into the HSBC World Series as the reigning European champions after a strong display in Bucharest.
For Simon Amor’s first outing as head coach, they beat World Series rivals France 31-7 in the final and will travel to the Gold Coast for the opening round of the World Series on October 12-13 full of confidence.
Playmaker Dan Bibby’s two early tries put them 14-0 up at the break while Christian Lewis-Pratt and Phil Burgess squeezed into the corner for a fourth that made it 26-0.
France responded through Julien Candelon but leading try scorer Dan Norton dived in for the fifth to complete victory.
England had swept through their Day One programme with wins against Wales (40-7), Portugal (26-14), Italy (19-0) and Romania (14-7).
Day Two started with a final pool match, a 17-7 win against Georgia with tries from Bibby, Lewis-Pratt and Michael Ellery.
Russia provided arguably the hardest test of the weekend and held them 14-14 at half time in the semi final after Burgess and Norton scored in the first half.
England were pegged back twice by two Denis Simplikevic efforts until Ellery and Bibby made sure.