IRB Sevens World Series Japan in Tokyo 31 mar and 1 Apr 2012. Results day One and Fixtures Quarter-Finals.
The weather has played havoc as heavy rain turned the pitch into a mudbath and made handling difficult. This has handicapped sides like Kenya who prefer firm ground and running rugby as opposed to contact. Kenya lost two game they would hope to win the biggest surprise was going down to Russia 17-26, following the loss to Wales 22-0. The Welsh win put them into the Cup quarters along with Argentina. The other results we got wrong are Scotland going down 7-15 to Portugal, Argentina going down 5-17 to in-form Wales and Samoa losing to a much more physical England 7-14.
Following the results on day one England won pool ‘A’ with Fiji second, New Zealand pool ‘B’ with Australia second, Wales pool ‘C’ with Argentina second and Samoa pool ‘D’ with South Africa second.
We have highlighted in bold our predictions for the winners in the various quarter finals. A couple are very tight calls, England to beat South Africa, but only if they play like they did in the pool games in the face physical. Samoa to get one over Fiji in a tight game.
Results Day One
01 10:00 NEW ZEALAND 26-5 UNITED STATES Pool B
02 10:22 AUSTRALIA 17-14 HONG KONG Pool B
03 10:44 ARGENTINA 15-7 KENYA Pool C
04 11:06 WALES 10-7 RUSSIA Pool C
05 11:28 SOUTH AFRICA 14-0 SCOTLAND Pool D
06 11:50 SAMOA 21-20 PORTUGAL Pool D
07 12:12 FIJI 17-0 FRANCE Pool A
08 12:34 ENGLAND 15-5 JAPAN Pool A
09 13:35 NEW ZEALAND 40-0 HONG KONG Pool B
10 13:57 AUSTRALIA 15-0 UNITED STATES Pool B
11 14:19 ARGENTINA 22-0 RUSSIA Pool C
12 14:41 WALES 22-0 KENYA Pool C
13 15:03 SOUTH AFRICA 12-7 PORTUGAL Pool D
14 15:25 SAMOA 14-7 SCOTLAND Pool D
15 15:47 FIJI 26-7 JAPAN Pool A
16 16:09 ENGLAND 19-7 FRANCE Pool A
17 16:35 UNITED STATES 21-19 HONG KONG Pool B
18 16:57 KENYA 17-26 RUSSIA Pool C
19 17:19 SCOTLAND 7-15 PORTUGAL Pool D
20 17:41 FRANCE 24-5 JAPAN Pool A
21 18:03 NEW ZEALAND 22-10 AUSTRALIA Pool B
22 18:25 ARGENTINA 5-17 WALES Pool C
23 18:47 SOUTH AFRICA 7-38 SAMOA Pool D
24 19:09 FIJI 7-14 ENGLAND Pool A
Fixtures Quarter-Finals
All times local (televised live on UK SkySports 06:00 )
25 09:00 FRANCE v SCOTLAND ¼ Final Bowl
26 09:22 RUSSIA v HONG KONG ¼ Final Bowl
27 09:44 PORTUGAL v JAPAN ¼ Final Bowl
28 10:06 UNITED STATES v KENYA ¼ Final Bowl
29 10:28 ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA ¼ Final Cup
30 10:50 WALES v AUSTRALIA ¼ Final Cup
31 11:12 SAMOA v FIJI ¼ Final Cup
32 11:34 NEW ZEALAND v ARGENTINA ¼ Final Cup