Amor in love with England's smart rugby ahead of Scotland showdown
BySportsbeat
Published 02/12/2016 at 17:45 GMT
Simon Amor praised his side's 'smart rugby' after Tom Mitchell inspired England to a 26-12 win over New Zealand as they completed a perfect three victories from three to book a cup quarter-final with Scotland at the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in Dubai.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
After Dan Bibby and Dan Norton had helped England to dispatch Samoa 19-7 in their first tie, a huge 38-7 victory over Russia took them top of Pool C before they ended the day in superb fashion, with Mitchell supreme as they downed the 12-time World Series champions.
Mitchell created and finished the first score against New Zealand, bursting through midfield before being hauled down, but when the ball was recycled he was on hand to finish out wide.
Bibby made the next with an intelligent kick ahead, Mitchell racing ahead to claim it before he slid and off-loaded for Charlie Hayter to score and put England 12-0 ahead.
Sherwin Stowers hit back for New Zealand after half-time, but Bibby and Norton combined to score England's third, the flyer missing an initial attempt to claim a kick ahead, only to get the luck of the bounce and touch down.
Antonio Kiri Kiri was sinbinned with three minutes remaining before Mitchell continued his virtuoso showing with a solo score that put the result to bed before a late Scott Curry consolation and Amor admitted Dubai had a special place in his player's hearts.
"They love playing here in Dubai, the support is fantastic and we have a young sevens team – the whole England 7s team is out here – it is a real special one for us," he said.
"It is so bizarre seeing everyone come back together [after the Olympics], Scotland have been playing some great stuff and they definitely had the upper hand in tournaments we played last year.
"We have done pretty well today, it wasn't perfect, but guys fought hard, played some smart rugby. We will give it a crack against Scotland tomorrow morning and go from there."
Ollie Lindsay-Hague had struck twice for England as they dominated Russia earlier in the day, the former Harlequins man made an initial half-break to set up Mitchell to race clear for England's first before Hayter's excellent play sent Norton over for his second try of the day after four minutes.
It was the Norton and Bibby show against Samoa, as the Olympic heroes combined to help England fight back to down Samoa.
Francis Ieremia went over out wide for a converted score after three minutes, but Bibby's break put speedster Norton over before the flyer – who brought himself three tries closer to Ben Gollings’ all-time England 7s try record of 220 by close of play – put Bibby in.
Norton completed his double just after the break before James Rodwell appeared to equal Gollings' England Sevens' cap record.
© Sportsbeat 2016
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