England take out another HK title

Hat-trick of HK victories for Lydon's English

On a weekend when England's senior side handed its RBS Six Nations crown to France, Simon Amor's England Sevens side won its third successive International Rugby Board (IRB) Hong Kong Sevens title, with a 22-12 win over Argentina in Sunday's Final.

England, winners in George, South Africa in December 2003, claimed 30 valuable points for their win - Hong Kong winners get more points because the tournament is bigger - but New Zealand remain in first place on the 2003/04 IRB standings, their 18 points for making the semi-finals keeping them four points ahead of the English on the overall standings.

But the biggest movers after Hong Kong are Argentina, with the Pumas moving into third place on the standings - ahead of South Africa, whom England accounted for in the semi-finals.

Argentina, winners in Los Angeles in Round Four, claimed 24 points for finishing as runners-up to England and they made the defending champions sweat it out until the bitter end, with a late Rob Thirlby try in the second half giving them enough breathing space.

Fransisco Leonelli opened the scoring after just two minutes for his side, but tries from Simon Amor and Peter Richards gave England a 12-5 half-time lead.

Richard Haughton put England ahead by 17-5 in the second half, but a Matias Albina try under the posts saw the Pumas claw their way back to 17-12 before Thirlby's try, finally, put the game beyond the plucky Argentines.

England coach Joe Lydon was a very happy man afterwards: "We had to respect Argentina as they are playing excellent Sevens at the moment. But this is what we came here to do and I'm very proud of the boys."

Argentina rely heavily on their defence in the shortened version of the game and they would have been bitterly disappointed by Thirlby's line-break. But they can certainly hold their heads high, having beaten New Zealand in a pulsating semi-final - both sides scoring three tries, but Argentina converting two to NZ's one and winning 19-17.

England then moved into the Final with a 15-7 win over South Africa in the semi-finals.

A Richard Haughton try gave England a narrow 5-0 lead at the break and a second from the Saracens star, plus one from Peter Richards, ensured England a place in the Final.

"It was very close and very tough," said team manager John Elliott afterwards.

Earlier, the first Cup quarter-final of the day had seen New Zealand beat Samoa 27-5, while in other QF action, Argentina got past Canada - who beat Sevens masters, Fiji, in a pool clash on Saturday - 19-14, South Africa beat Australia 17-5, and England beat Fiji 17-12.

That then set up an Argentina-New Zealand semi-final - a repeat of the LA Final - and an England-SA semi-final - a repeat of the semi-finals in Dubai and George last year.

* In the Plate Final, meanwhile, Scotland - who had earlier beaten Kenya in the semi-finals, surged to a 28-22 victory over France.

The Cook Islands proved too strong for Japan, winning in the Bowl Final 31-19.

Quarter-final results:
Game 37: Bowl QF 1: Cook Islands 46 Singapore 0
Game 38: Bowl QF 2: Portugal 26 China 12
Game 39: Bowl QF 3: Japan 31 Thailand 0
Game 40: Bowl QF 4: Chines Taipei 17 Georgia 19
Game 41: Plate QF 1: France 31 Namibia 5
Game 42: Plate QF 2: Korea 14 USA 12
Game 43: Plate QF 3: Scotland 20 Italy 17
Game 44: Plate QF 4: Hong Kong 0 Kenya 21
Game 45: Cup QF 1: New Zealand 27 Samoa 5
Game 46: Cup QF 2: Argentina 19 Canada 14
Game 47: Cup QF 3: South Africa 17 Australia 5
Game 48: Cup QF 4: Fiji 12 England 17

Semi-final results:
Game 49: Bowl SF 1: Cook Islands 21 Portugal 5
Game 50: Bowl SF 2: Japan 26 Georgia 21
Game 51: Plate SF 1: France 21 Korea 7
Game 52: Plate SF 2: Scotland 19 Kenya 7
Game 53: Cup SF 1: New Zealand 17 Argentina 19
Game 54: Cup SF 2: South Africa 7 England 15

Final fixtures:
Game 55: Bowl Final: Cook Islands 31 Japan 19
Game 56: Plate Final: France 22 Scotland 28
Game 57: Cup Final: Argentina 12 England 22