England Routs Fiji, Wins USA Sevens

If England was trying to send a message during the USA Sevens rugby tournament Sunday at the Home Depot Center, it was delivered loud and clear.

The British capped a dominant weekend performance in Carson with a 38-5 rout of Fiji in the championship game and moved into sole possession of second place in International Rugby Board Sevens series.

England outscored its six opponents, 190-44, and served notice that its lackluster finishes in the last two tournaments on the IRB series were flukes.

“We wanted to put our demons to bed here,” assistant coach Phil Greening said. “We worked hard on our game and it’s nice to get a reward for the hard work we put in.”

With four tournaments completed in the eight-tournament series, Fiji, winner of the previous two series events, remains atop the series standings with 72 points. England has 60 and New Zealand is third with 52.

England won the first tournament Dec. 2, but followed with a semifinal loss to Fiji on Dec. 10 and a quarterfinal loss to France last week.

On Sunday, England showed no signs of vulnerability, trouncing South Africa, 38-0, in a semifinal before handing Fiji its worst defeat in a Cup final since the series began in 1999.

“I don’t think we thought it would be this lopsided, to be honest,” said Andrew Vilk, who scored two tries.

David Strettle scored a try on a long run up the left side 33 seconds into the game to set the tone. Strettle made another long run less than a minute later that set up Vilk’s first score. A conversion kick by Ben Gollings gave England a 14-0 lead.

Timoci Volavola made it 14-5 when he scored for Fiji at the 4-minute 39-second mark, but the conversion failed and that’s how the first half ended. It was also as close as Fiji would get. England scored two tries and two conversions in the first minute of the second half for a 28-5 lead and the rout was on.

“Once you get a couple of tries up, you can really knock the wind out of teams,” said Strettle, who has been with the England squad for only two weeks, but had a tournament-best nine tries. In addition to the championship game, three consolation trophies were awarded. Argentina defeated France, 21-5, in the Plate final. In the Bowl final, Scotland defeated Tonga, 26-21.

The U.S. was 1-4-1 in the tournament, defeating Mexico, 33-0, in a Shield semifinal. The Americans, who tied Kenya, 5-5, in pool play, lost to the same team, 26-12, in the Shield final.