England beat Fiji and South Africa on way to Cape Town Sevens success
Monday 12 December 2016 15:43, UK
England produced a superb set of final day performances to win the HSBC Cape Town Rugby Sevens by beating South Africa in a tense final.
After earlier beating Fiji and Scotland to set up a clash with the Blitzboks, they were able to secure a 19-17 win when Justin Geduld missed a game-tying drop goal in added time.
Possibly the game of the tournament came in the quarter-finals where England secured a little revenge on Fiji for the Pacific Islanders' win over a Team GB line-up at the Olympic Games in Rio.
Dan Norton was the hero for England with an extra-time try in a 31-26 victory, but that only tells half the story as his side had appeared to be on their way out when they trailed 19-0 only six minutes into the game.
Tries from Alex Davis and Phil Burgess cut the deficit to five points but, after a Fiji score, it took further touchdowns in the closing stages from Richard de Carpentier and Ruardih McConnochie to force extra-time.
And it was Norton, who had a sensational weekend, who sent England through to face Scotland when his stop-and-go was enough to fool a Fiji defender and allow him to sprint through to score.
Scotland had beaten the United States 24-19 to reach the last-four but they would suffer in the semi-finals as England strolled to a 33-14 win.
Norton opened the scoring and there were two tries for Charlie Hayter in the first half, with Oliver Lindsay-Hague and Ethan Weddleton adding further scores after the break.
The Scots went on to lose 24-19 to New Zealand in the bronze medal match which preceded a mouth-watering final in front of a partisan Blitzbok crowd.
Chris Dry gave South Africa a 5-0 lead with an unconverted score, but England would hit back with tries from a rampaging De Carpentier and that man Norton to lead 12-5 at half-time.
Rosko Specman's collected his own kick through to level the scores but a brilliant wide pass from captain Tom Mitchell gave McConnochie the chance to put England 19-12 in front with two minutes on the clock.
Norton was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle in the closing seconds and Werner Kok made the most of the extra man to cross out wide, his try coming a vital second after the hooter had blown.
That meant Geduld had to kick a drop goal from out wide to send the final into extra-time but his effort was never on target, meaning Mitchell and his squad could celebrate a famous victory.
South Africa lead the World Sevens Series table on 41 points after two rounds with England second on 39 and Fiji (32) back in third.
