Plate finish for England in Hong Kong

England’s points came through  Dan Norton, James Rodwell and Ruaridh McConnochie with two conversions from Tom Mitchell, and the speedster Norton celebrated a milestone of his own this past weekend, reaching  200 Sevens World Series tries and claiming his sixth of the weekend in the 33-0 semi-final win over Kenya.

Simon Amor’s side, who finished top of their pool, went down 14-5 in their tough quarter-final game againts Australia, scoring only one try through the in-form Norton in the last minute.

Reflecting on the tournament, captain Tom Mitchell said:  “This weekend has had some ups and downs.  The whole week in fact has been a journey, we’ve learned a lot from it. 

“There has been some real stand out performances – Dan Norton has been amazing and credit to Charlie Hayter who, after only recently coming back from injury, showed glimpses of his best rugby again yesterday. I think we missed him at times in that first game but it has been a strong effort from all the guys and we are building and going in the right direction after what has been a tough couple of months for the squad.

“We shouldn’t underestimate how difficult it is to play in that plate final after suffering a tough loss in the quarters of the cup competition and the way the boys not only fronted up but also managed to improve in our decision making as the tournament went on today is something we can really take forward and build on.  I’m very proud of the guys and their efforts.”