New Zealand were the only unbeaten team on a day of upsets at the HSBC Kitakyushu Sevens on Saturday with Spain and Fiji joining them in the Cup quarter-finals as pool winners.
The Black Ferns Sevens will now face first-time Cup quarter-finalists China in the opening match on Sunday at 10:30 local time (GMT+9) after the Chinese marked their return to the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series for the first time since 2014-15 with a 24-12 win over Ireland to finish as the best third-placed team across the three pools.
Spain became the first team to beat Olympic champions Australia in the 2018 series, ending their run of 14 consecutive victories after an impressive fight-back was completed by Maria Ribera’s last-gasp try for a 17-14 win in the Pool A decider.
That loss means that Australia will face Fiji in a mouth-watering Cup quarter-final after the Pacific Islanders recovered from an opening defeat to Canada to beat both Russia and England to top Pool A and reach the quarter-finals for the first time this season.
Russia and England still advanced to the quarter-finals – where they will face France and Spain respectively – but Canada miss out for the first time in series history and will instead play Ireland in the Challenge Trophy.
They will be joined in that competition by neighbours USA, who were set to advance to the quarter-finals as one of the best third-placed teams until they conceded a third try against Japan at the death, a score that meant England were instead guaranteed a top-eight finish. USA will now face Japan again in the other Challenge Trophy semi-final.
Source: www.worldrugby.org
