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Sport | All Blacks

All Blacks Sevens through to knockout round in Cape Town

Regan Ware scores a try against Canada.  Photo/Mike Lee (KLC fotos for World Rugby)

The All Blacks Sevens have progressed well through to the quarter-finals of the Cape Town Sevens tournament overnight, recording wins over Canada and Argentina.

The results set them up for a showdown with Scotland later tonight.

In their first game, Canada looked set to score the opening try when Matt Mullins broke upfield but he was hauled into touch. From there, the All Blacks Sevens went downfield with Dylan Collier dotting down.

Co-captain Scott Curry doubled their lead to 14-0 at half-time but a series of penalties allowed Mike Fuailefau to get Canada back into the game. It was only a temporary set-back, though, with three further tries wrapping up a 33-5 win, the last of them by Sam Dickson in his 50th series event.

The last game against a tough Argentine side was close, Joe Webber giving the All Blacks Sevens the lead twice, either side of a first-half Matias Osadczuk try for Argentina. Andrew Knewstubb raced away to increase the lead to 19-7 but Argentina captain Gaston Revol ensured his side had the final say with a try to make the score 19-14.

In other results, a couple of poor performances has seen perennial challengers England and the USA knocked out of the Cup competition.

The Americans could not make it out of a tough pool, losing to hosts South Africa and Fiji. Meanwhile, the English were downed by France and Scotland in their opening matches.

The tournament, held at the impressive Cape Town Stadium, has attracted crowds of over 50,000 for the first two days, with even more expected for the finals.

The All Blacks Sevens’ game against Scotland kicks off at 11:24pm NZT. The other quarter-finals are South Africa v Kenya, France v Argentina and surprise package Ireland against Fiji.