England, Samoa, New Zealand and Fiji each won all their three games Friday to finish at the top of their pools on the first day of the New Zealand International rugby sevens tournament. Defending champion England scraped past Tonga 21-19 after beating the United States 31-5, then beat Kenya 24-10 to emerge at the top of Pool C Friday, earning a quarterfinal against Canada Saturday. Kenya also qualified for the Cup quarterfinals with a two-win, one-loss record and will play Samoa in Saturday's playoffs. New Zealand beat Wales 29-5, Niue 49-5 then defeated South Africa 19-7 to emerge at the top of Pool A, the most difficult of the four pools at the 16-team tournament. Fiji topped Pool B with wins over Scotland 36-5, Papua New Guinea 41-0 and Australia 38-7. Samoa was unbeaten in Pool D, beating France 29-19, Canada 27-14 and Argentina 33-14. Canada, which beat Argentina 26-7 and France 21-19, emerged unexpectedly as the other Cup quarterfinal qualifier from the group.
