Two tries from Dan Bibby helped England successfully defend their Moscow GP Sevens title.
Injuries fail to scupper title defence
Two tries from Dan Bibby helped England successfully defend their Moscow GP Sevens title.
Bibby's double, plus a try from James Rodwell, helped England overcome France 21-15 in the final of the FIRA AER European Series second leg.
England came through the event unbeaten - to follow up their success in Lyon - to top the standings heading to the Odense Sevens in Denmark on July 7-8.
However England were forced to finish with the competition with nine men as Matt Williams (hamstring), Nick Royle (hand) and Jack Preece (knee) all suffered injuries.
Coach Ben Ryan said: "It wasn't end-to-end stuff but we defended hard, were clinical in the chances we got and it puts us 10 points clear at the top of the table.
Pleased
"Considering how many players we lost throughout the tournament and how many young ones we had on the field at the end it was a great effort.
"What pleased me most of all was their desire to play for the shirt against the full-strength French side.
"Some of the guys who've joined us were short on conditioning for Sevens but even so the likes Ollie Phillips, James Lightfoot-Brown and Mike Ellery were all influential."
England had swept past the Netherlands (33-14), Wales (35-12), Georgia (47-7) and Russia (19-14) on the opening day in Moscow, before following up with wins over Ukraine (19-7) and Spain (22-7) to set up the final showdown with France.
