Rugby World Cup Sevens: England in to semi-finals after 'ridiculous' moment of magic from captain Tom Mitchell
England captain set-up Phil Burgess to score in sudden-death extra-time to knock out the World Cup hosts, much to the amazement of his teammates
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Your support makes all the difference.Dan Norton hailed Tom Mitchell’s “ridiculous” cross-field kick in sudden-death extra-time as the captain inspired England to a place in Sunday’s Rugby World Cup Sevens semi-finals, knocking out hosts the United States in the process.
Norton crossed twice as England controlled the early exchanges, only for the US to battle back into the fold at take the match to next-point wins, with Mitchell spotting an unmarked Phil Burgess out wide to chip over and place the ball perfectly into his awaiting arms to score the match-deciding try.
The 24-19 victory books England a place against recently-crowned Sevens Series champions South Africa, but Norton was keen to praise the bottle of Mitchell’s inspiring decision as they revelled in what was a nerve-wracking finale.
“Ridiculous, I looked up and it was one of our slow guys!” Norton said after Burgess’ try. “I was just hoping he had enough legs to make it. It was a ridiculous kick from Mitch, on the money in that kind of cauldron, it was bang on. For Phil to have the peace of mind to catch that and touch down was incredible.”
Teammate Ollie Lindsay-Hague agreed. “We need to give Mitch a bit of credit. He pretty much won us that game against Samoa with his kick, and that cross-field today too – full credit to our captain for that.”
The victory came in front of a partisan US crowd that lived and breathed every second of the match, include booing a flare-up at the end of normal time as two sides clashes with tempers boiling over. The fans were celebrating when captain Madison Hughes went over early, making the most of Mike Ellery’s lapse in defence, but two lethal finishes from Norton put England ahead and Lindsay-Hague stretched the score in England’s favour.
The US fought back though, with Folau Niua crossing and Perry Baker springing through the middle of England’s defence to level the scores to send the match to extra-time where Mitchell worked his magic for Burgess to cross. The win means that England are potentially two matches away from being crowned Sevens world champions for the first time since 1993, though South Africa and one of Fiji and New Zealand stand in their way.
However, for Linsay-Hague, the victory was just desserts for the work put in through the Sevens Series. “It was unbelievable really. We’ve come a long way this year, I think at the start of the year we probably would’ve lost that game. How hard we’ve worked this year has come through and we found the bounce of the ball went our way and we came away with a win against a home country. We were saying how good that team has been all year and to get on top of them in their own nation is incredible.”
Once again though there was only one side that stole the show. Fiji have long been the darlings of rugby sevens, and on a stage fit for giant at AT&T Park they surely delivered. A seven-try 43-7 rout of Argentina came amid fever-pitch support from a crowd packed full with Fijian supporters, and having surpassed the 25,000-odd that attended Friday’s action, the ball park looked resplendent in a sea of Fijian white and blue.
The game will be remembered for a moment of brilliance from Toulon’s Josua Tuisova, as the wing took a one-handed offload from former teammate Semi Radradra, now of Bordeaux Begles, charged down the right and hurdled over Argentina’s Lauzaro Bazan Velez NFL-style before diving over to score on of the tries of the tournament.
Fiji will take on New Zealand in what will be a mouth-watering clash and a repeat of their recent meeting in London, which the Pacific Islanders clinched convincingly with one of the performances of the season.
New Zealand made hard work of it though. The All Blacks picked up three yellow cards, conveniently one after the other, to spend more than six minutes down to six men, but eventually tries from Kurt Baker and Joe Ravouvou saw them past France 12-7 and into the last four.
Wales and Ireland will face off on Sunday in the Challenge semi-finals, having won their respective quarter-finals against Samoa and Kenya, with the winner set to face either Canada or Australia in the final, while Scotland will play-off for fifth with the US and one of France and Argentina.
Swiss watchmaker TUDOR is the Official Time Keeper of Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in partnership with World Rugby. For further information visit www.tudorwatch.com
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