Scotland will play Samoa in today's main event but the loss to an excellent Kenya team in their second game took a little of the gloss off the afternoon's work, especially since the home team created enough opportunities to win the game twice over but refused to move the ball to the men in space.
Ally Hogg's yellow card at the tail end of the first half didn't help matters and Colin Gregor hit the post with one tricky conversion.
The match was one of the best of the day, with Roddy Grant scoring two cracking tries for the home team – he l
ater added another against Canada. The Edinburgh flanker was Scotland's stand-out player on the day although he had some competition from playmaker Colin Gregor who would grace any team in the contest.
After Scotland and Kenya took it turn about to score, they were tied on 17-17 with just a minute and a half left to play when the home side won a penalty dead ahead of the posts. Greig Laidlaw ignored the three points on offer and the chance to run the clock down, opting for a quick tap instead but, after a turnover, a kick and a chase, it was the Kenyans who finished the scoring at the other end of the field with a try from Humphrey Kayange despite some heroic tackling back from the indefatigable Gregor.
It had been a different story earlier in the day as the Scots ran up a record score against England. This five-try rout pretty much ensured that the Scots qualified for the main competition for the second weekend regardless of the Canadian result. The home side blasted out of the blocks with three tries when England had hardly touched the ball, all of them goaled by Gregor, to give themselves a 21-0 lead. John Houston opened the scoring, Laidlaw added the second under the posts and when Sean Lamont added a third the tie looked over. Not so.
England won their own tournament at Twickenham last weekend and they were not about to lie down and die. James Rodwell grabbed one try back in the last move of the first half and he was followed over the line by England's giant winger Oche Oduoza directly from the restart. When Ben Gollings scored England's third a little later it looked ominous for the Scots.
However, the home team gathered their wits and saw out the match with two more scores, from Grant and Andrew Turnbull, the latter having downed Oduoza in a little and large mismatch to keep England from adding to their score. Gregor converted four of the five tries as his team recorded what was only their second ever victory over England in the IRB sevens.
After capitulating lamely to the same opposition one week ago, that Scotland result was a shock but elsewhere the scores ran with, rather than against, expectations. France put up a fight against New Zealand before going down 22-5. The reigning World Champions, Wales, needed a score with the last move of their match against Georgia to book their place in today's cup quarter-finals and Samoa beat Argentina late in the day to join them.
South Africa won their final pool game against New Zealand but they had already deposed the reigning IRB Champions. Even if South Africa fail to win another match in Edinburgh today, they guaranteed themselves four points yesterday when they only needed one to be crowned 2008-9 champions.
But despite South Africa winning the entire series and Scotland beating their ancient enemy, the biggest cheer of the afternoon was reserved for Kenya. The ever-popular Africans beat England late in the day by three tries to two to knock last weekend's winners out of the main cup competition. Spoilt, utterly spoilt.
Results: South Africa 33 France 10; New Zealand 29 USA 5; Argentina 17 Wales 19; Samoa 38 Georgia 7; Fiji 41 Portugal 7; Australia 24 Spain 7; Kenya 35 Canada 0; England 17 Scotland 33; South Africa 34 USA 4; New Zealand 22 France 5; Argentina 54 Georgia 0; Samoa 21 Wales 14; Fiji 48 Spain 0; Australia 29 Portugal 0; Kenya 22 Scotland 17; England 26 Canada 12; France 26 USA 5; Wales 50 Georgia 7; Portugal 33 Spain 10; South Africa 14 New Zealand 12; Kenya 21 England 14; Argentina 7 Samoa 42; Fiji 26 Australia 19; Canada 5 26 Scotland 26. Cup Quarter-final Draw: South Africa v Australia; Samoa v Scotland; Kenya v Wales; Fiji v New Zealand.
