England claimed impressive victories over Fiji, France and Japan to complete an unbeaten first day at the Tokyo Sevens.
Clean sweep sets up a quarter-final against South Africa
England claimed impressive victories over Fiji, France and Japan to complete an unbeaten first day at the Tokyo Sevens.
Ben Ryan's men made light of high winds and heavy rain to finish the day with a 14-7 victory over Hong Kong champions Fiji after seeing off France 19-7 and then hosts Japan 15-5.
The clean sweep sets up a quarter-final against South Africa and a chance of instant revenge against the side that beat England 28-0 in last weekend's third place play-off.
Head coach Ryan said: "We got stuck in with three very typical English performances and our tackle completion rate was unbelievable - we maybe missed one in 100.
"It is Day One and we're not getting carried away but we couldn't have asked for the first day to go any better and momentum is important.
"We've now got a very tough quarter final against a side who frankly embarrassed us [in Hong Kong]. We're a better side than that and we'd like to show them what we can do."
Mat Turner, Tom Powell and Rob Vickerman scored the tries to see off the hosts before Turner, Tom Mitchell and Chris Brightwell touched down against France.
Stunned
Mitchell's acceleration through the middle stunned Fiji in the final game of the day as he put England in front mid-way through the first half.
Dan Norton, the HSBC Sevens World Series's leading try scorer, then added a second by bursting off the back of a midfield ruck to beat three tacklers and go under the posts early in the second.
Metuisela Talebula responded to get Fiji back in the game but England clung on for the closing couple of minutes to complete their first unbeaten first day since their Dubai title victory in December.
"It's been a hard day today because of the weather - you wouldn't have thought it was spring in Tokyo, it's more like winter in Wales," said Norton, who took his tally to 30 for the season.
"But we played the conditions really well, made our tackles and did the basics right. That tackling was really the key."
