England Sevens lift plate in Glasgow

England lifted the plate at the Emirates Airline Glasgow 7s yesterday after beating Kenya 26-5 in the final.
There were tries for James Rodwell, Marcus Watson and two for speedster Dan Norton as England showed their full attacking potential.
Earlier Simon Amor’s side staged a second half come-back against Fiji in the quarter final of the Cup but fell just short 14-12. This put England into the Plate semi-finals where they convincingly beat Australia 21-7.
England remain fourth in the HSBC Sevens World Series and head to London next weekend, where they will face Argentina, Wales and New Zealand on day one, and a successful tournament could still see them pip Fiji to third place.
Head Coach Amor said: “Apart from the first two or three minutes of the Fiji game, we’ve played well today. I’ve been encouraged by some of the young guys, they’ve had more game time and we’ve seen them step up.
“Our execution and the technical accuracy of our tackling and passing has been much better.  I’m really pleased with how the team have responded following yesterday’s results.”
It was a disappointing day one for England who drew with Canada 7-7 after clinching victories against France (21-5) and Japan (33-24).  Finishing second in the pool on points difference meant a tough quarter final draw against Fiji.
Two early tries for the Islanders put England on the back foot but in a spirited second half Tom Mitchell and Phil Burgess touched down. The missed conversion from out wide by Mitchell, with less than a minute to play, proved costly however and England dropped into the plate.
Demonstrating individual skill and well executed set plays England dominated the semi final against Australia. Alex Gray was the first to score before a looping run from Mitchell released Norton on the outside for England’s second.
Mitchell, this season’s HSBC Sevens World Series‘ leading point scorer, then added to his tally, accelerating down field to extend the lead to 21-0 before Australia grabbed a late consolation try.
England took the momentum into the final and Rodwell powered over the line within two minutes. A long kick from Mitchell gave England field position, after a period of sustained pressure from Kenya, and from there the ball moved wide to Norton who scored in the corner.
The flyer added a second straight after the break before Watson put the game out of reach despite Kenya’s last ditch efforts.
Showing the impact that home support can make, Scotland reached the Cup semi-finals where they narrowly lost out to Canada (10-7) and were eventually forced to settle for fourth place despite pushing Fiji hard in the play-off (17-10).
It was Canada’s first ever Cup final on the Sevens World Series but they were out played by table toppers New Zealand (54-7).