8:06pm HT South Africa 19 Wales 0 Seabelo Senatla and Justin Geduld (2) with the tries. Very, very poor from Wales this.  Already confirmed as pool winners (it's been a long day) 

FT New Zealand 24 USA 12 The dream dies for the US, as Spooner-Neera and Rocky Khan show too much class. Gillies Kaka dives on a kick at the death just to rub it in. Great defending from US, but too tough a task

Meanwhile thanks to Shah Sahari again for spotting my deliberate mistake about the draw on Twitter. So it should be (I think)

Winner A v Canada

Portugal v Kenya

Fiji v Second A

New Zealand v Samoa

7:47pm HT New Zealand 7 USA 12 Matt Hawkins gives US a surprise early lead but Ben Lam dodges about four guys, including Shalom Suniula at least twice, to do an under-the-poster. Spooner-Neera is then sinbinned, and USA take advantage as the Hawk flies over etc etc for his second. Could a huge shock be on the cards? 

Probably not.

It's testament to my professionalism that I've not typed any swears here. Typical, typical Scotland. w

FT Samoa 12 Scotland 12  Samoa get Lolo Lui sinbinned, and Scotland decide to level things up by letting them have an equalising try. Lineout after hooter is last chance ... given away ... it's a draw. Typical Scotland.

HELP MA BOAB! It's Samoa 5 Scotland 12 as the Pacific Islanders succumb to sustained pressure (seriously) and James 'Jinky' Johnstone goes over in the left corner. 1:40 left can Samoa escape with pride intact?

HT Samoa 5 Scotland 7 

Hawmaws, Autagavaia makes up for his blunder with a try in the right corner after hooter.

Samoa 0 Scotland 7 

GERRINTHER. What a weird letoff - Samoa had two men free on the touchline, Faatoina Autagavaia inexplicably dropped it under no pressure. Brilliant work then from Russell Weir, superb run, great strength to hold off the tackle til support arrived, then two super-sharp offloads led to the try, the scorer of which was Colin Gregor.

RIGHT SCOTLAND, INTAE EM 

7.13pm FT Canada 5 Fiji 26. Taylor Paris pulls one back early for Canada. How impressive has he been? Fourth try of tournament, joint top with Duarte Moreira who got all his against Scotland. A chance? Nope. Nanyak Dala is sinbinned and Fiji immediately score a classic 'Fijian' try, brilliant running and interchange between Donasio Naturaga and Ilai Tinai. Tinai now has four tries too. Ulaiyasi Lawavou then goes over after more excellent play by Fiji. Big hand-off, tripped by the leg, but up quickly and over. I definitely fancy Fiji-NZ final here

7:05pm HT Canada 0 Fiji 14 back in the main event, Fiji legend Waisale Serevi is inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame, then the current generation put the smack down on Canada, two tries from Jasa Veremalua and Samisoni Viriviri. So they're set to top Pool D, but QF opponent could be Samoa, Portugal or even Scotland

6:49pm Tonga 26 Uruguay 0. Tonga make it 3 out of 3. The more established core team contenders are a lot stronger than the others. So Pool E should look like so, and I think the QFs are as follows, it's a little complicated and I'm thick:

Tonga P3 W3 Pts 9

Tunisia P3 W1 L2 Pts 5

Uruguay P3 W1 L2 Pts 5

Taiwan P3 W1 L2 Pts 5 (Looks like Taiwan finish bottom on much inferior points difference).

QFs: Win one QF to go to London, you'd fancy the first-named team in each game (if I have it right). HK would have a tough task against all of them.

Russia v Uruguay

Zimbabwe v Brazil

Tonga v Tunisia

Japan v Georgia

Shows how well HK played:

6:28pm FT Japan 26 Georgia 7 Okay it really is full-time now. Kazushi Hano got two in the second half for a hat-trick, and the Pool below still stands.

Oops, I am an idiot, it is only half-time in Japan-Georgia. Paying close attention as you can tell. 

So Japan top the group, which should look like this:

Pool F

Japan P3 W3 Pts 9

Brazil P3 W1 D1 L1 Pts 6 (2nd on Try difference)

Georgia P3 W1 D1 L1 Pts 6

Jamaica P3 L3 Pts 3

Kenya's coach:

6:06pm FT Russia 21 Zimbabwe 12 So Russia top the pool with 3 wins from 3. Zimbabwe through in second.

Pool E looks like this:

Russia P3 W3 Pts 9

Zimba P3 W2 L1 Pts 7

Cook I P3 W1 L2 Pts 5

Mexico P3 L3 Pts 3 

Meanwhile, my colleague Alvin Sallay has been speaking to Hong Kong head coach Dai Rees. 

"They were two performances we can be proud of," he says of the defeats to Canada and Spain. "We said we'd bounce back after the poor performance against Fiji and we did. We just need more composure at this level."

Read the full story in tomorrow's SCMP

Right, back in the lower-tier compo now. This game between Russia and Zimbabwe should be good, but I'm taking a break for a bit. 

5:46pm FT Argentina 5 Australia 12 Great shimmy and hand-off from Shannon Walker on his own 10m creates the space and he charges through. He's been good too for Aus. Both him and Holland have 3 tries now. 

So Australia have 7 points in Pool A and currently top it. They need South Africa to beat Wales in the last game of the evening to top the group and avoid New Zealand in the QF (assuming All Blacks will beat USA later).

The Jamaican player who crashed into the boards and was stretchered off earlier is fine, the stadium announcer tells us

5:36pm HT Argentina 5 Australia 7. This is another tense one, winner books a QF place. Lewis Holland, who seems to be Australia's best player by miles, scores early, before a late reply by Matias Moroni.

So Kenya steal France's QF place at the death, amazing. They're likely to face Wales, with a NZ-Aus clash probable in the other QF. But Argentina, playing Aus right now, will have something to say about that

5:26pm FT France 17 Kenya 19 What a finish! Steeve Barry got a third seemingly to ease France's worries after they spent most of the half in African territory. But Kenya pulled one back with :56 to go to set up a winner-takes-all final minute. Gobelet was sin-binned for booting the ball away, followed by Albaladejo for some mischief in the ruck. Kenya made them pay, Horace Otieno sealing it. Incredible!

HT France 10 Kenya 7 France took the lead through Julien Candelon, but Dennis Ombachi fought back. Candelon added another post-hooter. Knife-edge one this, win for Kenya puts them into Cup QF at France's expense 

Ben Ryan, England coach, after a disappointing pool campaign: "We showed some good energy and some fight and we need to show that tomorrow. We are where we are and we need to get on with it, but we are not hiding the fact that we are massively disappointed.France have taken an early lead against Kenya.

Meanwhile, Shah Sahari is back on Twitter to point out that my perception that quite a few of the Pacific Islanders here have the same first and last names is utter b*******s

5:01pm FT England 22 Portugal 7 Dan Norton fired up his jets to get a third, James Rodwell dived over for a fourth, and England seal first win. Too late though, Scotland defeat had consigned them to the Bowl. Now let's hope Scotland can beat Samoa #longshot. France-Kenya next. Still more than three hours of this stuff to go, by the way.

4:51pm HT England 12 Portugal 7 John Brake and Christian Lewis-Pratt gave England early lead as they look for first win in this tournament, but Romelu Lukaku-lookalike Aderito Esteves pulls one back as Portugal try to top the pool with 100% record.

Tough on Hong Kong, they were in charge in that game for long spells, just as against Canada, but didn't have the cutting edge. Spain didn't do much, but they mercilessly punished HK's mistakes. It's the difference between playing regularly at this level and not. If HK do make it on to the core series, and go full-time, they could make a fist of it. But looking at the teams in this core-team pre-qualifier, it's going to be very, very tough in London to qualify.

4:44pm FT Spain 28 Hong Kong 14

Second half

TRY HONG KONG Absolutely brilliant run from Varty from one 22 to the other sets up Cado Lee for a score. Too late though, HK pay for their mistakes 28-14

Try Spain. Too easy again. Nil Baro waltzes in on the left. Eni Gesindi's got to do better for HK there. Not convinced by him 28-7

Try Spain. Hong Kong had the better of the opening, but then Spain livened up and Matias Tudela nipped in on the right. Again a bit easy for him. 21-7

TRY HONG KONG! Great spell of possession from Hong Kong. Couple of quick penalties and Varty dives over the line. Referee goes to the video and it's good. Much better from HK, pity they gifted Spain such a head start 14-7

Try Spain. That's just too easy. The line breaks on the 10 metre and Pablo Feijoo breezes under the posts. Terrible start from HK here 14-0

Try Spain. Tom McQueen misses a tackle on halfway line and Pedro Martin storms down the middle. 7-0

HK: Kwok, Gesindi, Jones, A McQueen, Varty, Hood, T McQueen

Spain: Blanco, Feijoo, Lavino, Heredia, Carter, Carrion, Lewis Rolls

4:22pm Taiwan nick a win at the death from Tunisia 24-26 and might have snuck into the pre-tournament qualifiers. Now it's Hong Kong v Spain, let's get a home win.

Fun tweet from Canada's Sean Duke about his ma and pa 

4:01pm Brazil 31 Jamaica 5 Easy win for Brazil, who should be in pre-qualifier tournament quarter-finals now. Lucas Duque scored his fourth try of the tournament and he looks decent, if a little stocky bordering on chunky. Without being too condescending, rugby in Jamaica still has a long way to go. They had another man sin-binned in this game, I think that's one in each game, definitely two out of three. Worrying couple of minutes for them as one of their players took a header straight into an advertising hoarding and appeared to knock himself out. Stretchered off, hopefully he's okay.

3:36pm Cook Islands gub Mexico 34-10, hat-trick for Koiatu Koiatu. Anybody know why Pacific Islanders often have the same first and last names? I am completely ignorant about their culture. Next up it's Brazil-Jamaica, battle of new boys, so someone's going to get a debut win, then Tunisia-Taiwan. After that at 16:20, Hong Kong play their final group game, against Spain.

I'm a huge Beach Boys fan but without Brian and at a venue like this they're more than a bit Vegas lounge acty. I'm in the minority judging by the crowd and Twitter reaction though - I haven't had any bevvy today however. Good thing Brian Wilson isn't here, don't think what remains of his synapses could handle the HK7s experience. Pity they weren't in the middle of the pitch or in front of the South Stand. Played the hits though, hell of a lot better than the braindead chart guff the stadium DJs love. Here's the set list in full (I think)

Surfin' USA

Barbara Anne

Get Around

Fun Fun Fun

Little Deuce Coupe (I think, that one was muddy)

Good Vibrations

Wouldn't it be Nice?

Help me Rhonda

California Girls

Sloop John B

Some Beach Boys verdicts

Went for a wander outside. Cockney wide boys doing a roaring touting trade, right in front of oblivious / indifferent coppers. Don't like to encourage this Harlem Shake nonsense, but if you're into that sort of thing ...

2:41pm I'm back. Beach Boys are on. For some reason they're in front of the North Stand, where they're nearly indistinguishable from the crowd, rather than on the field. Surfin' USA, Barbara Ann

Back in an hour. Here's something to ponder

2:07pm FT South Africa 12 Australia 21 Good win for Aussies, that was a must. South Africa have been pretty rubbish this season and set to miss Cup again. I'm off to get something to eat, hopefully back in time for Beach Boys. This is what Pool A looks like:

Wales P2 W2

ARG   P2 W1 L1

AUS   P2 W1 L1

SA      P2 L2

New Zealand best team here in my opinion. Another final awaits. South Africa Australia now, both need to win.

Pool B looks like this

NZ P2 W2

Fra P2 W1 L1

Ken P2 W1 L1

US P2 L2

1:40pm FT New Zealand 31 Kenya 7 Tim Mikkelsen stretches the All Blacks' lead then Sam Dickson makes it 22 -7 after a beautifully weighted kick into the left corner from Mikkelsen. He's a player. Adds the extras too. Straight from the restart Forbes gets his second, and Kenya give up.

1:30pm HT New Zealand 12 Kenya 7. Sherwin Stowers gave NZ the lead when he kicked clear of a tackle, but the Africans equalised shortly afterwards when 'Big' Willy Ambaka burst through from midfield. He's been dangerous throughout the series for Kenya, who are without their top man Collins Injera after a club-v-country row. Big cheer for Kenya. Ben Lam should have given the All Blacks a second, but fumbled an easy catch a metre out. Stowers was then stopped on the try line before DJ Forbes finally gave his team a half-time lead, stretching over in the right hand corner.

1:19pm FT Portugal 14 Samoa 10 Wow, fantastic win for Portugal over Samoa, who crushed England yesterday. Not good news for Scotland that as they have to face Samoa next. So Pool C looks like this

Portugal P2 W2

Samoa P2 W1 L1

Scotland P2 W1 L1

England P2 L2

What's that you say? You want a whole load of stats from Canada-Hong Kong? Let me see what I can do. 

12:58pm Canada 14 Hong Kong 12 Unlucky on HK, ball was in Canada's territory the whole half, HK parked on the five metre line for a good spell, but they just couldn't get the breakthrough, not helped by a persnickety ref who seemed to make some odd decisions - or is that just home crowd bias? McQueen, who was excellent, got the ball out wide as the hooter sounded and so nearly kicked clear of Canada's tackle, but they brought him down and the ref ruled some infringement in the ruck in Canada's favour to end it. Very good display by Hong Kong against a team who have been in excellent form on their debut season on the core series. Let's hope HK can sign off with a win against Spain.

Second half

Big tackle by McQueen lifts the crowd and HK nearly work it into a scoring position, before the ref oddly awards Canada a scrum when it seemed they were offside at a ruck. 2:50 to go

TRY HONG KONG! HK win the restart, work it wide to the right and Tom McQueen shows the Canada defence his heels and takes it behind the posts. Perfect start. 14-12

Try Canada - Birthday boy Nathan Hirayama goes over on the left as hooter sounds after HK got caught out on halfway. Great attempt to rescue it by Tom McQueen, but too many bodies for him to tackle. Hirayama adds the extras. 14-5

Try Canada - Taylor Paris picks it up just over halfway, little sidestep befuddles Lee Jones and he's away, Jamie Hood can't catch him. Conversion is good 7-5

TRY HONG KONG! Great few phases of play from HK, denied first by the protective padding around the post, but they work it out left to Tom McQueen who dies over. Conversion falls short. 13 passes completed to 2 0-5

12.36pm Tonga 38 Taiwan 0. I just had to get a cappuccino, mid-morning lull in full effect after those three mismatches. The gentle murmur of a crowd of drunk people in fancy dress paying zero attention to the rugby sevens is actually quite soothing as long as you're far enough away. Good thing an incredibly loud hooter blows every seven minutes or I might have nodded. I'll do a full blow-by-blow account of Canada-Hong Kong once I get this caffeine into me.

Okay, when I said tweet me I didn't mean just for criticism, but Shah Sahari raises a valid point - it was just a silly joke Shah

12:19pm Well it finished Japan 43 Jamaica 0. I may have dozed off for a minute or two, it's a long day here. Good luck to Jamaica on their debut etc, but it did not an exciting game make. Tonga are out now, and will likely dish out similar punishment to Taiwan. Let's hope HK Canada after that is not another mismatch.

12:06pm Japan comfortably beating Jamaica 31-0 (I think, lost count) at half-time, dull mismatch with another to come in Tonga-Taiwan. Jamaica have had two guys sin-binned. Sione Faamao Teaupa, he of the suspiciously non-Japanese sounding name, bagged a hat-trick.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-Canada teams are in:

Canada: John Moonlight, Conor Trainor, Sean Duke, Taylor Paris, Nathan Hirayama, Ciaran Hearn, Chauncey O'Toole. Subs: Tyler Ardron, Justin Douglas, Nanyak Dala, Mike Fuailefau, Harry Jones

Hong Kong: Kwok Ka-chun, Eni Gesindi, Alex McQueen, Rowan Varty, Jamie Hood, Tom McQueen. Subs: Nick Hewson, Anthony Haynes, Ben Rimene, Cado Lee, Yiu Kam-shing.

Fairly sure Haynes is injured from yesterday, we'll see.

11:53am Russia 31 Mexico 5. I'd be lieing if I said I paid much attention to that one. Looks like it's Canada dangerman Nathan Hirayama's birthday. Hopefully Hong Kong don't give him any presents. Japan-Jamaica up now. 

The IRB has put Day One highlights online:

11:42am Okay, I've recovered. Please no more LMFAO, there's enough braincells being destroyed here. We're back in the lower-tier competition and Russia are giving Mexico a 19-0 beating at half-time en route to their second win. Japan-Jamaica next, Tonga-Tunisia, then Hong Kong are in action, against Canada. Need a win there to stay alive, but unlikely, Canada were very good against Spain yesterday. 

May not be able to continue blogging, Stadium DJ is playing Sexy and I Know It and my IQ has just plummeted

11:29am FT Wales 19 Argentina 14 Franco Sabato, or Franky Saturday to translate him from Italian to English, goes over in the corner and a great conversion off the posts levels things. With 37 seconds to go Mathew Pewtner shows great strength in right corner, holding off Juan Ignacio Brex and Facundo Panceyra Garrido to go over. Two out of two for Wales and they'll be heading to the quarters. I demolished that pie and could go another. Sevens isn't a great place for healthy eating. 

Oh dear ... 

11:21am Wales 7 Argentina 7 Matias Moroni opened scoring for Argentina, before Rhys Jones levelled. Jason Harries has just gone over early in second half. I've got my first pie of the day

11:07am FT USA 19 France 21 Jack Halalilo pulled one back for USA, who have now lost both their games in Pool B. Can't see them turning that around against the All Blacks. I've spent much of the half examining the South Stand and count at least five separate groups of Where's Wallys. After that, Mike Palefau got another one back on a good run from his own 22. Folau Niua then set up the prospect of a magnificent comeback, but a forward pass put paid to that. Back in 10mins

Scotland coaching mastermind Stephen Gemmell on the legendary smiting of the English: "It [possession] was our problem against Portugal last night, and England had the same problem against Samoa. It was down to who could keep possession and we managed to do that."

10:58am HT USA 0 France 21 The teams come out. BOOOO says the South Stand. Nice sweeping move early sends Renaud Delmas over. BOOOO says the South Stand. Paul Albaladejo sells US une petite dummy and hands off for Jean Baptiste Gobelet in front of the posts. BOOOO says the South Stand. Steeve Barry drops the ball in the end zone under no pressure when he just needed to put it down for a third French try. LOOOOLLL says the South Stand. Then they replay it on the big screen just to rub it in. LOOOOLLL says the South Stand. Barry has the last laugh though because he drags a US defender with him and stretches to place the ball under the posts for No.4. South Stand can't even muster a boo.

Kenya taking the Star Ferry to work by the looks of it:

10:45am FT Scotland 14 England 5 AND SENT THEM BOWLWARD ... Crowd favourites (not that I heard much support for them) England suffer their second defeat in a row. They won't be around for the Cup quarters, unless they can hammer Portugal and Scotland get destroyed by Samoa. Both eventualities are not unlikely. Decent, disciplined display by Scotland, few chances and few good moves. Scotland are used to that sort of thing, but England really expect better.

Scotland 14 England 5 Well the Lion is simply Rampant here and no mistake, with the Auld Enemy powerless in the face of our majestic mane. Too much? Excellent from Scotland, halting a dangerous break from Marcus Watson in their own half, then gaining territory through a number of phases up the pitch before Robertson again shimmies, beats his man and takes it behind the posts

Scotland 7 England 5 England put a good string of passes together for first time and find 'speedster' (I believe that is the official term) Dan Norton out wide. Good conversion attempt off a post. Fairly sure there must have been some cheating involved there somewhere.

10:35am HT Scotland 7 England 0 England simply have no answer to the majesty of Scotland's ... oh all right. Pretty even game, mainly tackling, reminiscent of a dour Six Nations tie, no real flowing moves apart from the excellent one Scotland put together to lead.

Scotland 7 England 0 IN THERE! Some great offloading down the right touchline by the brave sons of Caledonia and Mark Robertson is last man to take it under posts. Colin Gregor with the conversion

Scrappy start mostly played in midfield, Scotland with possession  but unable to find a way through

Now it's the big one, Scotland v England. I'm strictly neutral of course but GERRINTAEEMSCOTLAND

10:26am Fiji 22 Spain 12 Ulaiyasi Lawavou added another early, then not a lot happened til 1:30 from time when Jaike Carter showed good hands to make it 17-12. That seemed to wake Fiji up and Jasa Veremalua collected his own chip kick to drive over. Fairly comfortable overall for Fiji, who weren't as impressive as they were against Hong Kong, but maybe that says more about HK's performance.

Commentator next to me has spent much of his time complaining about the amount of Fiji substitutes. I might have to move.

New Zealand's Kaka > 

;

10:13am HT Fiji 12 Spain 5 Ilai Tinai with the opener, powerful 60m+ sprint. His third of tournament. Missed pass from Fiji then gifted Spain the ball in their own end zone, and it got wide to Javier Carrion to go over on the right. Trying very hard to come up with a joke involving his surname. He fed like a vulture on Fiji's mistake. Not really working is it?

After the hooter, Samisoni Viriviri stormed down the right from his own half to give Fiji a more comfortable lead.

I have a radio / web commentator next to me in the press box today. Can't decide if it's going to be handy or annoying.

Ah, binge drinking, it's what it's all about: 

10:03am So, Tunisia beat Uruguay 12-5. If I had to be brutally honest, I'd say that is not a game that is going to live long in the memory. In fact I've already forgotten about it. Next up is the first core team clash of the day, Fiji v Spain. Fiji hammered HK yesterday and Spain were outplayed by Canada, so you'd fancy the defending champions to dish out some South Pacific punishment

9:48am Stadium announcer: "The South Stand is now FULL". He adds: "Jimmy Savile has been spotted in the South Stand", so take care out there.

9:42am Wow, what a brave performance from tournament debutants Brazil. 14-0 down, they fought back to level, then conceded another at the death to trail 19-14. But they kept the ball alive after the hooter sounded and eventually got another try for a battling draw. They have impressed in their two games in Pool F, and should have enough to beat Jamaica later for a first win.

Here's some stats from Day One: 

Most Points
Duarte Moreira (Por)  20
Ilai Tinai  (Sam) 14
Gillies Kaka  (NZ) 13
Paul Albaladejo  (Fra)12
Nathan Hirayama  (Can) 11

Most Tries

Duarte Moreira  4
Paul Albaladejo  2
Faatoina Autagavaia (Sam) 2
Nicolas Bruzzone  (Arg) 2
Lewis Holland  (Can) 2

So far today it was Zimbabwe 29 Cook Islands 0 in the first match in the lower-tier competition in the first match of the day. At half time in the second, it's Georgia 14 Brazil 0

Day 2, how are those hangovers? We're just getting set up here at Hong Kong Stadium, with 12 hours of the best Sevens rugby to come