Thirlby hat-trick sees England home over NZ

England won the International Rugby Board (IRB) George Sevens, with a hat-trick from flyer Rob Thirlby giving them an emphatic 38-14 win over New Zealand in the Final on Saturday. The Final was played in front of a lively crowd at Outeniqua Park, who had to put up with the disappointment of seeing South Africa, winners in Dubai last week, crash out to the English in the semi-finals.

Rob Thirlby: Burning up George

Thirlby opened the scoring for England with a try early on, putting his side ahead by 7-0 after a nifty pass from Ben Gollings, the outstanding England man over the two days in George, put him into a gap for his first score. Richard Haughton soon made the score 14-0 as his pace carried him through for England's second score before a converted try from Anthony Tuitavake gave his side some hope at 14-7 - the half-time score.

Thirlby ran in another try, however, to make it 21-7 after the break before Justin Wilson, who had earlier been sin-binned for a foul, made up for his indiscretion with a superb individual try to pull the score back to 21-14.

But England stepped up a gear after Wilson's score as Thirlby completed his hat-trick for a 28-14 lead before Gollings, again, had a say, fooling the Kiwi defence as he sprinted down the touchline, giving his side a 33-14 lead.

Gollings missed the conversion, but it did not matter as he darted through to complete his brace and the win for England - much to the delight of the English supporters in the crowd, of which there were, amazingly quite a few.

While Gollings had a huge affect on England's win in the Final, and indeed during both days of play, South Africa's Kabamba Floors - who plays his provincial rugby for the Eagles in George, won the Player of the Tournament Award, much to the crowd's delight. Springbok super-sub Brent Russell, who the Award last year, was on hand to the present the trophy to Floors.

Earlier in the day, England silenced the George crowd with a well-deserved 19-7 win over hosts South Africa in the semi-finals, scoring three tries to one in the process.

The hero for England was Ben Gollings, who scored a crucial try when the game was still in the balance at 14-7 after he had opened the scoring in the match with a breakaway five-pointer, which he converted for good measure.

The other England try was scored by Rob Thirlby, which came completely against the run of play when South Africa were on attack in England's 22 and guilty of taking the wrong option.

José van Rensburg scored SA's only try on the stroke of half-time, with Earl Rose adding the conversion.

In the second Cup semi-final, Fiji got off to a flying start when Sireli Naqelevuki scored an intercept try, only for the Kiwis to slowly start taking control in proceedings thanks to tries from Justin Wilson (two) and Anthony Tuitavake.

New Zealand ran into a 26-12 lead with just over four minutes remaining, but the Fijians scored two late tries to force a period of sudden-death extra-time, yet another narrow finish for the Kiwis after their lucky escape in the quarter-finals against Argentina.

The extra-time period saw both sides threaten each others' goallines, but a strong run and fend from Kiwi captain Karl Te Nana saw the deadlock broken - the Kiwis were through into the Cup Final with their 31-26 win.

The Plate Final, meanwhile, was won by Argentina, who hammered France in the Final by 29-12. The Shield Final went to Kenya, courtesy of a 22-19 win, with Canada, popular winners, if ever, taking the Bowl title home with them after a 19-14 win over Namibia in the Final.

Argentina very nearly caused one of the biggest upsets in the history of the IRB Sevens earlier in the day, but in the end New Zealand's class shone through as Amasio Valence scored a late winner to put his side into the semi-finals.

New Zealand were 19-7 down with the clock fast running out after tries from Pablo Gomez Cora, Santiago Gomez Cora and Francisco Leonelli Morey had put the Argentines ahead.

But NZ remained calm at all times, slowly chipping away at Argentina's lead before Valence scythed through some tired Puma defence to score the winner. With the scores tied at 19-all he found himself faced with an easy conversion to book their place in the semi-finals and he made no mistake.

In the first of the Cup quarter-finals, England hammered France 50-0, Les Bleus having no answer to England's all-out attack as the No.1 seeds sounded a serious warning to the rest of big guns in George. England, however, would be without Danny Hipkiss, who was suspended for one match after punching a Frenchman in their quarter-final win.

James Brookes and Rob Thirlby scored a brace each against France, while England's record points-scorer Ben Gollings once again had an outstanding game, contributing 15 points through one try and five conversions, missing three kicks at goal during the match.

South Africa, who had the added bonus of huge home support (as the crowd at Outeniqua Park doubled overnight) in their quarter-final against Australia, had the crowd in raptures as they set up a meeting with England courtesy of a 42-7 win over a fired-up, but outclassed, Australian side.

The South Africans scored six superbly-crafted tries, with Fabian Juries running in a double and Earl Rose scoring one and converting all the tries. Rose, however, blotted his copybook when he was sin-binned for kicking the ball away after Australia had been awarded a penalty.

The third Cup quarter-final of the day saw a clinical Fijian side beat Samoa 27-12.

Fiji ran into an early lead, through some wonderful ball-retention, but were guilty of slacking off in the latter stages of the match - even conceding a penalty try.

Day Two results:

Bowl quarter-finals:
Zambia 33 Zimbabwe 12
Namibia 29 Morocco 7
Uganda 24 Sri Lanka 14
Kenya 7 Canada 21

Cup quarter-finals:
England 50 France 0
South Africa 42 Australia 7
Fiji 27 Samoa 12
New Zealand 21 Argentina 19

Shield semi-finals:
Zimbabwe 12 Morocco 29
Sri Lanka 17 Kenya 24

Bowl semi-finals:
Zambia 19 Namibia 24 (after extra-time)
Uganda 12 Canada 24

Plate semi-finals:
France 26 Australia 5
Samoa 12 Argentina 14

Cup semi-finals:
South Africa 7 England 19
Fiji 26 New Zealand  31

Shield Final:
Morocco 19 Kenya 22

Bowl Final:
Namibia 14 Canada 19

Plate Final:
Argentina 29 France 12

Cup Final:
England 38 New Zealand 14

By Howard Kahn