England Take Title in Hong Kong

Full scores and rosters from 2012 Hong Kong 7s can be found here.

from Scrumqueens:

England were crowned champions of the IRB Sevens Challenge Cup with a tight 15-10 win over World Champions Australia in Hong Kong.

In a fantastic finale to a great tournament, England’s Jo Watmore grabbed the limelight with two well-taken tries, the second late in the game to secure the win.

England had qualified for the final with a confident 22-12 win over Canada earlier in the day while Australia crushed USA 33-0 in the other semi-final.

Both sides cancelled each other out in the opening nine minutes as the sides ran themselves into a standstill but couldn’t find a breakthrough. Finally England took their chance when Watmore took a pass from Alice Richardson inside her own half and sprinted away to score and take a 5-0 lead at the break.

It had been tense stuff with England needing a superb tackle from Kay Wilson on Emilee Cherry to prevent a score after a great break from Sharni Williams.

With Heather Fisher providing the power up front, England had been getting their hands on the ball more and more as the first half wore on but Australia through Bo De La Cruz, Cherry and Tricia Brown looked very dangerous.

Australia equalised 2 minutes after the break when Cherry raced through from a turnover to tie it up 5-5.

Then came the score of the game when Wilson, a huge threat out wide, grabbed a superb solo effort, running and stepping from her 22 to the corner flag to give England a 10-5 lead.

Australia though were nowhere near out of the game, and came back at England hard. Williams and Alex Hargreaves came close but England’s defence was solid.

But their efforts were rewarded with a great break from Cherry out wide and De LA Cruz was on her shoulder to race over. Australia missed the kick under the posts and it was 10-10 with two minutes to go.

England worked their way out of their half with a  break from Micheala Staniford and when Heather Fisher and Sonia Green linked up to create space, Watmore was there to score the winning try.

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