Hong Kong Sevens Day One: Norton breaks all-time try-scoring record

England's Dan Norton became the all-time leading try-scorer on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series with his 245th try as the Hong Kong Sevens kicked off with a bang on Friday.

The 29-year-old winger reached the milestone as England steamrollered past South Korea 52-0 and pushed himself one ahead of Kenya's Collins Injera, who did not score as Kenya went down to Canada 17-14.

England's captain Tom Mitchell claimed his 100th series try and after the final whistle Norton paid tribute to his teammates following his historic score.

"It was an amazing feeling, it was hard with the record in sight to try and control my brain coming into it," said the winger, who made his England debut in 2009 and also starred in Great Britain's Olympic silver medal winning campaign last year.

"I've got some fond memories of playing here, we've hit a few finals here, I scored my 200th (try) here last year."

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England are second in the World Series standings behind South Africa and are chasing their first win in Hong Kong since 2006 when their coach Simon Amor was still in his playing days.

In the other Pool A match, Australia edged Samoa by 22-19 with Henry Hutchinson scoring twice to help secure the tight game.

New Zealand overcame the disruption of losing captain Scott Curry for the entire Hong Kong Sevens to beat Wales 19-7 in their opening match on Friday.

Curry was forced to withdraw from the event due to flu and DJ Forbes stepped into the captain's role as they beat Wales 19-7 in their opening match.

Also in Pool C, the winners of 2015 and 2016 Hong Kong Sevens - Fiji - made a positive start to their weekend by thrashing Japan 36-0 and scoring six tries in the process including a brace from Jerry Tuwai.

In Pool B Kenya looked to have earned a late draw against Canada when Nelson Oyoo scored with less than a minute to go to draw level at 14-14. However, ill-discipline let them down and Canada stole the victory with a penalty from Nathan Hirayama after the siren.

The second match in Pool B saw World Series leaders South Africa were pushed all the way by France and it took a touch of magic from Cecil Afrika to secure their 17-10 win.

Finally in Pool D Argentina beat Scotland and the USA edged Russia by 14-7 with Perry Baker notching up his 25th try of the season.

Hong Kong is the seventh of ten stages in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series with Singapore hosting the next tournament later this month before it concludes with Paris and London in May.

The remaining pool matches will be played on Saturday live on Sky Sports 5 from 1.50am with the knockout games following on Sunday.

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