England Sevens through to Cup quarter-final of Mitsubishi Motors Exeter 7s
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Loading...England will face Ireland in the Cup quarter-final of the Mitsubishi Motors Exeter 7s.
They ended day one with a 19-5 victory over Italy with tries from George Chatterton, Alex Davis, and Mason Tonks.
That followed two earlier defeats to Spain and Germany in the final leg of the Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series.
England’s opening game saw Spain sealing a 22-17 victory courtesy of two late tries.
They trailed 12-10 at the break with England scoring fine individual tries through Harry Glover and Tonks.
In between those scores, Callum Sirker was stretchered off but England came fighting back and Henry Martin went over in the corner to give them the lead.
However, Spain won it, crossing twice with their winning try coming in the final seconds of the game.
They next faced Germany and were beaten 17-5, however, Tonks continued his impressive tournament with another try.
The day ended with a win over Italy, Chatterton running a good support line to finish off a decent team move as England led 7-5 at the break.
Captain Davis scored a try to extend the lead with Will Edwards’ conversion taking it to 14-5. Tonks then powered through three tackles to seal the victory.
Commenting on England’s performance, England Sevens assistant coach Tony Roques who leads the team this weekend, said: “I’m so pleased that the boys dug deep to get the win against Italy; achieving that will give them a lot of confidence going into tomorrow.
“We got progressively more aggressive in our defense and showed what we can do if we stick to a simple pattern.
“The most pleasing thing from today is that the attitude was phenomenal throughout. They worked really hard for each other and in sevens that are massively important.”
The England team for this European series has consistently contained a mix of players predominantly from the England Sevens Academy, Premiership Academy, and the universities program.
Roques added: “This tournament is huge for the development of this young side; they’re playing on an international stage which is a great stepping stone and as a result, we’re building a really strong pool of players that we can start selecting from for the World Series.”
England will face Ireland in the Cup quarter-final on Sunday 16 July at 11.30am which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports 3.
England Sevens squad for the Mitsubishi Motors Exeter 7s:
George Chatterton
Mason Tonks
Oskar Hirskyj-Douglas
Charlie Kingham
Alex Davis ©
Jordan Ainslie
Will Edwards
Tom Ffitch
Harry Glover
Ryan Olowofela
Henry Martin
Callum Sirker
Walk-up tickets for day two of the Mitsubishi Motors Exeter 7s will be available from the Sandy Park ticket office on Sunday 16 July.
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