England miss out on fairytale as New Zealand clinch World Series
ENGLAND beat Fiji to finish third in the Marriott London Sevens at Twickenham yesterday as they narrowly missed out on a fairytale ending to their HSBC World Series campaign.
Defeat to Australia in the semi-finals cost the hosts the chance to repeat their pool stage victory over New Zealand, who won the event and clinched their 12th series title.
Having topped their pool with three wins from three fixtures on Saturday, England edged out France 19-17 in the cup quarter-final to set up a clash with Australia in the last four. Despite second-half tries from Tom Mitchell and Dan Norton, England found a 15-0 half-time deficit too much to overcome and lost 15-12, but recovered to see off Fiji 26-19 with tries from James Rodwell, captain Mitchell, Mat Turner and Howard Packman.