HONG KONG — Canada kicked off the Hong Kong rugby sevens tournament with a 28-12 win over Belgium on Friday.
John Moonlight scored two tries while Liam Underwood and Sean Duke each added one.
The Belgians took a 7-0 lead in the first minute but the Canadians quickly settled their nerves and Moonlight scored in the second and fourth minutes to go up by seven. Harry Jones converted both Moonlight tries.
Underwood scored in the eighth minute while Duke, a second-half substitute, sealed the win with his try in the 14th minute.
The Canadians will have two tough games on Saturday when they face Samoa and Fiji.
"We’ve just got to try and build momentum for tomorrow," said Canadian coach Liam Middleton. "Yes, we conceded a couple of tries but they’re not a bad side. I thought we attacked very well and defensively our shape was good. On the whole we did a lot of good stuff today."
Fiji, a record 14-time winner of the Hong Kong tournament, beat 38-12 Friday. The two sides have met three times in the final; Samoa won in 1993 and 2007, and Fiji in 1998. Their last match in Hong Kong, six years ago, was a draw.
Samoa, criticized by its prime minister for slumping after making the Gold Coast final in the series opener, scored first through Tofatuimoana Solia, but by halftime Fiji led 21-7.
Savenaca Rawaca crossed while Samoa’s Lafaele Va’a was in the sin-bin, Semi Kunatani went in after Samoa dropped the ball, and Pio Tuwai scored from a sweeping, 80-meter attack.
Samoa scored again in the second half, but Fiji finished in style, with replacement Josaia Wini scoring twice on debut.
Defending champion New Zealand, and world series leader South Africa, also started well.
When Scotland, which has never beaten New Zealand, levelled at 7-7, the kickoff was immediately returned 80 metres by Sherwin Stowers, and the Kiwis rolled on to win 26-7.
Their biggest pool opposition will be Australia, for which Shannon Walker returned from a 14-month injury layoff and notched the last of its five tries in a 33-5 win over Portugal.
South Africa latest bid to win a first Hong Kong title began by rubbing out Argentina 24-0. The best of the five tries was the second, when Werner Kok blasted up the middle, kicked ahead, and two South Africans could have grabbed the ball. Seabelo Senatla did.
Wales gave England all it could handle, and the latter relied on fine solo tries by Dan Bibby and Tom Mitchell to grab the lead.
Wales’ Luke Morgan then fended off Dan Norton and slipped out of another tackle in a great run down the right touch to cut the deficit to two, only for England to score after the first-half hooter through Phil Burgess.
England made it 26-12 when James Rodwell took advantage of three defenders on Bibby. Morgan scored his second try for Wales, but the comeback ran out of time.
France beat Japan 24-7, but relied on a great piece of defence in the second half. At 19-7 up, Japan captain Katsuyuki Sakai was racing into the left corner when he was caught by Jonathan Laugel, who turned Sakai over on his back over the tryline, and knocked the ball out of his grasp.
The United States, a semifinalist at its home sevens last month, came from 14-0 down against Kenya at halftime to speed into a 21-14 lead, then just hung on. Kenya stole a defensive lineout near its own tryline with seconds to go, and worked the ball all the way to 10 metres out from the U.S. line when it conceded a game-ending penalty.