Jesse Parahi in action as Australia beats Samoa – Photo: IRB/Martin Seras Lima

by Brendan Bradford –

New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji and Australia top pool stages.

Tonga scored an early try against the USA, but second half scores to Zack Test and Miles Craigwell secured a win for the Americans and third place in Pool A. They play Scotland in the Bowl quarter final while Tonga face Argentina who finished third in Pool D.

France had a disappointing first day and didn’t have it all their own way in a 28-19 win over Spain in the battle for third place in Pool B. It was 14-14 midway through the second half before tries to Jeremy Aicardi and Julien Candelon clinched the win for France who take on Portugal in the Bowl quarter finals.

Canada continued to impress with a 24-17 win over Portugal to take third place in Pool C. The Canadians were impressive in getting out to a 24-7 lead but faded late in the second half to concede two late tries and give Portugal a sniff of a win.

Scotland fell just short of another huge comeback in their last pool game against Argentina. Leading 21-7 at halftime, Argentina were cruising to third place in Pool D before switching off and allowing Scotland to score two tries to get back to 21-19. The Scots pressured the line and looked likely, but a penalty after the siren extinguished any hopes of a remarkable comeback.  

Canada were unlucky to miss out
on a Cup quarter final berth after Fiji lost to Wales
Photo: IRB/Martin Seras Lima

A brilliant Joe Webber solo try opened the scoring for New Zealand against Kenya before Ambrose Curtis won a race to the corner for the defending Series champions. Scott Curry added a third before halftime for a 19-0 lead at the break while Webber added his second try after the resumption. Waisake Naholo finished off an impressive 31-0 win as New Zealand topped Pool A without conceding a single point.

“That was probably our best performance of the day, especially against a good Kenyan side that was playing well as well,” said New Zealand captain DJ Forbes.

“Tonight really counts for nothing now, we’ve gotta back it up tomorrow, but we can take some confidence out of that.”

South Africa topped Group B with a 22-14 win over England to set up a Cup quarter final with Wales. South Africa went behind 7-0 after four minutes but scored the next 22-points before a try to England’s Tom Rodwell after the siren narrowed the gap to eight.

An excitement filled 22-19 win over Fiji saw Wales claim a Cup quarter-final spot ahead of an unlucky Canadian side who needed the Pacific Islanders to win to go through. Fiji ultimately lost the back-and-forth match and finished the Pool stages on equal points with Wales and Canada but topped the group and will play England in the Cup quarter final.

Two tries was all Australia needed to hold off Samoa and claim top spot in Pool D in the last match of the evening. A first half five pointer to captain Ed Jenkins and a long range effort to local boy Shannon Walker sealed the result to set up a match with Kenya in the quarter finals.

“We knew it would be a physical battle with Samoa and we really stood up,” said veteran James Stannard after the match.

“We’ve got a gameplan and we showed tonight if we stick to it we can put some good teams away.”

Round Three Results:

Pool A – USA 14 – 7 Tonga

Pool B – France 28 – 19 Spain

Pool C – Canada 24 – 17 Portugal

Pool D – Argentina 21 – 19 Scotland

Pool A – New Zealand 31 – 0 Kenya

Pool B – South Africa 22 – 14 England

Pool C – Fiji 19 – 22 Wales

Pool D – Samoa 0 – 12 Australia

*******

Quarter Finals Fixtures:

Bowl: USA v Scotland, Canada v Spain, Argentina v Tonga, France v Portugal

Cup: New Zealand v Samoa, Fiji v England, Australia v Kenya, South Africa v Wales

The first match, between the USA and Scotland, kicks off at 10:30 on Sunday morning.