Fiji, England, Australia and defending champion New Zealand topped their pools after the first day of the Wellington Rugby Sevens Tournament Saturday, further establishing the powers of the sport ahead of its Olympics debut in Rio de Janiero. New Zealand faced the hardest task to finish atop Pool A, having to beat South Africa which was runner-up in the Sevens World Series in the last three years. Fiji, South Africa, New Zealand and England have qualified for the Olympics tournament after filling the top-four placings in last year's World Series. Joe Weber scored a try after the final hooter to give New Zealand a 19-14 win over South Africa in the final match of the day which left it unbeaten. New Zealand plays Kenya, South Africa meets Australia, England faces Argentina and Fiji plays the United States in Sunday's quarterfinals. South Africa seemed to have clinched victory in a see-sawing match against New Zealand when Cheslin Kolbe scored just before fulltime off an error by All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams. Williams attempted one of his trademark offloads but the ball fell to South Africa who put the agile Kolbe into space. Seconds after conceding Kolbe's try and after South Africa conceded a series of penalties to keep the clock ticking after the final siren, Williams provided a more assured offload which cracked the defense and from which Joe Webber scored the winning try. The selection of Williams was seen as a coup for the New Zealand team in the Olympics year but, while he scored a try in his opening match, he at times looked lost in sevens rugby which requires pace and spontaneity — neither his strong suit. Defending world series champion Fiji dominated Pool B with wins over Japan, Wales and Argentina and heads into the quarterfinals as the tournament favorite. Fiji beat Japan 45-7, Wales 33-7 and made sure it topped the pool when it beat Argentina 31-10. England faced a tight struggle to top Pool C after a shock late loss to Samoa. Samoa had lost its first two matches in the pool to the United States and France while England beat France 17-14 in the opening match of the day and the United States 19-5. The Samoans opened a 17-0 lead by halftime then held out a stout England rally to win the match, though they failed to progress to the Cup quarterfinals. A young Australian team won Pool D to emerge as a strong threat in the quarterfinals. But it had a scare in its opening match of the day when it found itself trailing Portugal 12-0 before rallying to win 19-12. It went on to beat Canada 26-22 and Fiji 17-12. — AP
