England women fly into Sevens quarter finals

The Red Roses made the perfect start to the competition with wins over Australia, USA and China to advance to the last eight where they will face reigning champions Australia on Friday.

Captain Abbie Brown scored the opener against Australia in the 26-12 victory before James Bailey's side stretched their advantage through Emma Uren.

The two-time winners broke back through Dominique Du Toit, but Ellie Kildunne and Natasha Hunt both went over the whitewash to seal a perfect start to the event in Dubai.

England continued their momentum by edging past USA 14-12 and clinched a hat-trick of victories with a 38-0 triumph over China.

Jess Breach scored two tries in the match as the Red Roses crossed six times in the Pool B showdown.

The England captain, who scored three tries in total across the group stage fixtures, was full of praise for her teammates as they target a second consecutive victory over their southern hemisphere rivals.

"I'm so pleased with the girls' performances today – the amount of effort and work that everyone put in has been amazing," said Brown.

"That non-stop attitude is exactly what you need and you can't teach that – I'm really proud of everyone. We're going to head back now, recover and get ourselves ready to go again tomorrow."

Sportsbeat 2018