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Alvin Sallay

England eke out victory against Samoa - and now they have to do it all over again
Like a recurring nightmare, sentimental favourites England will once again meet Samoa - in the Cup quarter-final today - to the dismay of coach Ben Ryan who described the method to decide the last eight line-ups in the three competitions as terribly unfair.
'How do you explain this system where we beat the second-seeded team in the competition and still end up playing them again in the Cup quarter-finals? Try explaining that to me,' said a mystified Ryan after England scraped through to a 7-5 victory in their final pool game.
The Cup quarter-finals will see New Zealand meet Wales and Kenya take on Fiji in the top half of the draw. In the bottom half, South Africa take on Australia while, in Groundhog Day fashion, the defending champions Samoa front-up against England.
It was skin-of-the-teeth stuff, with Simon Hunt the hero for a young England outfit who threw their bodies on the line in desperate defence.
Hunt scored the match-winning try midway through the second half after Samoa had led 5-0 at the break thanks to a Alafoti Fa'osiliva try. But it mattered little. Even if England had lost, they would have still met the Samoans first-up today.
'We had to lose by more than four points to miss meeting Samoa. But if that had happened, we would have met New Zealand in the quarter-finals,' said Ryan. 'But whether we won 7-5 or lost narrowly, we would have ended playing Samoa again. How fair is that?'
The six winners of each pool plus the two best second-placed teams enter the Cup quarter-finals. Samoa and Wales fell into the latter category. And in a cruel twist, England will meet Samoa again, the Pacific islanders being the best second-placed team who always play the winner of pool B (England). This scenario has happened before.
Hong Kong Rugby Football Union officials defended the format, saying it had been used successfully over the years.
'Ours is the only tournament in the IRB Sevens with 24 teams and this formula has been tried and tested over the years. We have 24 teams so we can give the Asian sides more exposure,' said Pieter Schats, HKRFU director of finance.
Samoa, stung by the loss, will certainly come back strongly today. They are defending champions, and defeat will be a slur on their island honour. So gutted were they by their loss that coach Rudy Moors  refused to comment on the match.
All the fancied teams earned their top pool place through sheer hard work. Fiji, who beat Wales 15-0, had to struggle to find a hole in the red-shirted defence. They had to rely on William Ryder, who did not start, to inspire the team to victory in the second half after leading 5-0 at the break.
South Africa beat a six-man Argentina 19-14 to top their pool. The winning try came after the hooter and with their opponents down a man. South African coach Paul Treu was astounded by the number of dropped passes by his team.
Australia also had  an escape against Tonga, winning 17-15. Rising star Caleb Brown was responsible for the match-winning try which once again came in the final passage of play with Tonga down to six men.
Australian assistant coach David Campese, who had earlier bemoaned how all the decisions seemed to go in favour of the 'bigger or home' teams - after watching a French try being disallowed against Hong Kong in a match which ended 21-21 - must have been thanking the stars for just that as the referee ruled in Australia's favour and sent off Tonga's Ualosi Kailea for an apparent high tackle.
It was all an uphill battle for the big guns. And it will just get harder today with their being no second chance in the knockout phase. Just ask Ryan.
'Beating Samoa was a big result. But maybe it might come back to haunt us,'  he said. 'In sevens you are living on a knife edge. Today we came out on the right side, but sadly it has not achieved anything.'
Four-time champions England will hope that the crowd support will once again be able to lift  them past the physical Samoans. 'We have a great history here and the crowd has always been fantastic and worth two points to us,' said Ryan, who will be more than willing to accept a two-point margin of victory today.
It won't be a nightmare then, but a pleasant dream.



Double jeopardy