Saturday 28 March 2015 12:06, UK
England are through to the quarter finals of the Hong Kong Sevens but it was the USA who topped Pool D after fighting out an entertaining 21-21 draw on a day when Portugal stole the headlines.
Earlier wins over Kenya and Wales meant the USA and England fought out top spot in their closing match, and the Americans took the lead when Perry Baker scored an opportunistic try, only for Jeff Williams to reply for England.
The USA’s Maka Unufe then scored the first of his two tries but Tom Mitchell ran 70 metres to score for England and it was 14-14 at the break.
Unufe weaved his way over again in the second half but England salvaged a draw when Williams got away down the right and then raced round under the posts for his second try of the contest.
The USA finished with six men because Folau Niua was sin-binned for a very nasty kick-out at James Rodwell.
But it was Portugal who nearly claimed one of the biggest surprise wins in the tournament's history, when they came within a missed conversion of victory.
The All Blacks had begun their campaign with a 26-7 win over Scotland on Friday and it was business as usual in the first-half against Portugal as they cruised into a 17-7 lead, exciting youngster Rieko Ioane among the try scorers.
Portugal began the second half well, Diogo Mateus touching down after a great move, but Ambrose Curtis replied with a breakaway try for New Zealand.
However, Carl Murray went over for Portugal and Nuno Guedes then bundled his way across the line to level the scores, although the conversion went astray, denying the Portuguese a first ever win over the All Blacks and leaving the match tied at 24-24.
New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens said: “We just fell off tackles.
“You are going to get punished playing like that in sevens against anyone. To be honest, we shouldn't have even drawn that game, we should have lost.”
New Zealand did then bounce back from the surprise draw to beat Australia 14-5 and qualify for the knockout stages.
England will face Fiji in the last eight while South Africa will take on Australia, USA will meet Samoa and Argentina will play the All Blacks.
