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(IRB.COM) Saturday 3 December 2011
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England successfully defended their Dubai Sevens crown after beating France in the 2011 Cup final - IRB/Martin Seras Lima
England beat France in a fine Cup final 29-12 to defend the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens title they won last year and delight the ex-pat crowd at The Sevens stadium.
In doing so they climb to second in the HSBC Sevens World Series standings, seven points behind Gold Coast champions Fiji. Three nations, New Zealand, France and South Africa, lie three points adrift of England ahead of round 3 in Port Elizabeth next weekend.
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Tries by Isoa Damu and Dan Norton gave England an early 12-0 lead in a physical encounter. France hit back through their own pace man Renaud Delmas to cut the lead to five points, but two tries by Player of the Tournament Mat Turner put England 24-7 ahead at half time.
Delmas clawed one back for France soon after the break, but England worked hard in defense to hold their lead and in the dying seconds Rob Vickerman crossed to cap a fine win.
For France it was a first Cup final appearance on the World Series since 2005.
After suffering defeat at the hands of England in the semi finals, Fiji defeated Argentina in sudden death extra time in the Bronze final, Livai Ikanikoda scoring his second of the match to secure victory.
In the other trophies, Australia's Leiws Holland scored with the last play of the Plate final to beat South Africa 17-14. Andrew Turnbull was the difference in the Bowl final, his hat trick inspiring Scotland to a 26-0 victory against USA, and Samoa defeated Kenya to lift the Shield.
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Last-minute try secures Plate for Australia
Lewis Holland scored a try in the final play of the Plate final to help Australia beat South Africa 17-14 and lift the Plate.
Michael O'Connor's side had earlier beaten defending Series champions New Zealand 26-12 in the semi-final, inflicting a third successive defeat for the first time in Sevens history on Gordon Tietjens' team.
Greg Jeloudev, Jesse Parahi, Con Foley and Lewis Holland all scored first-half tries against the defending Series champions whilst South Africa beat Wales 22-7 to reach the final.
Turnbull hat trick fires Scotland to Bowl
Scotland triumphed in the Bowl final 26-0 against USA to remain unbeaten on day two and clinch eight Series points.
New World Series try centurion Andrew Turnbull added three more to his tally to make it 10 for the tournament and captain Colin Gregor rounded off the convincing win.
Earlier, USA progressed to the final with a 33-17 victory against neighbours Canada, while Scotland raced to a 19-0 lead at half time in theirs before Portugal hit back with three second-half tries, but decisively they were only able to convert once.
Earlier Mike Palefau's hat-trick helped the USA to a 41-7 victory against Zimbabwe, their second victory against the cheetahs in five meetings, and Scotland had beaten hosts UAE 40-5.
Samoa's first Shield ends in triumph
Having entered the Shield competition for the first time Samoa ended the Dubai Sevens on a high with a 31-17 victory against Kenya thanks to two tries from Paul Perez and collected three Series points in the process.
In the semi-finals Tom Iosefo scored twice in Samoa's 21-12 semi-final victory against Zimbabwe whilst Kenya beat hosts UAE 35-5.
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