Hong Kong 7s - Jamie Noon Opens the Scoring

By Mally (28/03/03)
March 28 2003

Newcastle Falcons' Jamie Noon got off to a flying start opening the scoring as England began their defence of the Hong Kong Sevens title.

The England Sevens team demonstrated that they mean business running in eight tries in a 52 - 0 victory over Singapore in their opening Group B match. Jamie's first try came soon after kick off scoring in the first minute of the game.

The second try came from Rob Thirlby (Rotherham ex-Bath) who produced what reports describe as "a delicately judged kick-and-chase" and London Irish's Geoff Appleford added England's third try of the game.

Both Thirlby and Noon scored again as England stretched their lead to 33 - 0.

In the second half England try rate slowed down a little as Northampon Saints' John Howard was sin-binned. However even with a man down England managed to pull further away from Singapore, with a second try for Geoff Appleford and tries for Saracens' Richard Haughton and Matt Cannon of London Irish.

Such a big win, without Singapore even getting on the score sheet may seem a little unfair but with the quarter-final seeding is dependant upon the Group rankings, so the 52 point difference racked up by England is all to the good.

In Group A New Zealand beat Malaysia 38 - 3, the Group C saw Russia pressurize Fiji by initially going ahead 5 - 0, Fiji fought back and won 33 - 5, and over in Group D China lost 7 - 40 to Australia.

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