New Zealand, Fiji shine in Wellington Sevens
Wellington (AFP) - New Zealand and Fiji were the only teams to emerge from pool play unbeaten in the Wellington round of the IRB Sevens World Series Friday while South Africa only just scraped into the playoffs.
The United States, Scotland and Kenya proved the surprise packages to make the quarter-finals with Australia and England rounding out the final eight.
Series leaders South Africa suffered a shock loss to France in pool play and had to rely on a superior points differential to qualify for the quarter-finals.
A tensely fought Pool A saw South Africa, France and the United States all finish with seven points, with France forced to drop down to the bowl section on the final day.
South Africa, who have won two of the three rounds so far, needed to beat the United States by at least four points in their final game, which they comfortably did with a 26-14 win, to knock France out of contention.
The French had opened the tournament with a 22-5 thrashing of South Africa but their points differential was skewed when they were subjected to a 38-7 hiding by the United States.
New Zealand, the defending World Series champions, were untroubled in Pool B winning an expected crunch match against England 24-5 after being held to 5-5 at half-time.
Their task was made easier when Richard de Carpentier was red carded for a tip tackle early in the second half.
Fiji made a slow start in Pool C, held to 12-12 at half-time in their opener against Portugal before pulling away to win 31-19 and following up with comfortable wins against Wales and Australia.
Kenya finished top in Pool D despite being well beaten by Argentina 31-7. The South Americans were unable to hold their form and were held to a draw by Samoa and were beaten by Scotland, the other side to qualify from their group.
