Defending champion New Zealand and England crushed their opponents in their opening games at the Hong Kong Sevens on Friday as they regrouped from disappointing quarterfinal losses in the World Cup earlier this month.

Another World Cup quarterfinalist, South Africa, survived an early scare from South Korea to win 29-7.

Playing in steady rain at the Hong Kong Stadium, Lote Raikabula scored a hat trick of tries and Hurricanes standout Victor Vito added a pair to lift the Kiwis past Sri Lanka 59-0. Dan Caprice scored three tries as Kevin Barrett and Josua Drauniniu each had two to lead England past China 54-0.

“They were ruthless. That’s what I asked the boys to be and that’s what they were,” England coach Ben Ryan said.

Ryan said that his side used the disappointment of losing out at the World Cup — won by unheralded Wales — to inspire its performance.

New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens said the playing conditions were tough.

“It’s quite atrocious out there. It’s really slippery,” Tietjens said. “Your concentration obviously has to be right up there. You have to be so good in contact in the rough areas.”

In other action, World Cup runner-up Argentina beat Hong Kong 28-0, Fiji defeated Taiwan 33-0 and Kenya edged the West Indies 17-10.

Two missed conversions cost the United States as it lost 19-17 to Scotland, Samoa edged Canada 14-10, Tonga defeated Portugal 17-5, France beat Uruguay 17-5 and Australia eased past Zimbabwe 33-5.

Wales, competing with only two players from its World Cup-winning side, beat Japan 14-5 in its first match since Dubai.

Source: Jakarta Globe