Medal hopes over for England’s men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams

Both side’s were well beaten by New Zealand on Saturday

England’s rugby sevens teams are out of medal contention (Mike Egerton/PA). (PA Wire)

England’s rugby sevens teams crashed out of medal contention on the second day of competition at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Both the men’s and women’s sides were well beaten by New Zealand, confirming their relegation to placement matches for the remainder of the tournament.

England women lost 38-7 and the men went down 20-0, following a stuttering start on Saturday when they had suffered pivotal losses to Canada and Samoa respectively.

It brought a disappointing end to their host tournament for two teams who clinched bronze medals at the previous Games on the Gold Coast in 2018.

England fly-half Alex Davis said: “Obviously we’re disappointed, but I definitely think we did what we set out to do, which was to make New Zealand work, we knew they were a really great side.

“We would obviously like to be in the knockout quarter-finals, but we’re not and now we just have to maximise the opportunities that we’ve got left and learn from what we can.”

England’s men were well beaten by New Zealand (Mike Egerton/PA) (PA Wire)

The Welsh men’s team are also out of medal contention despite a plucky 38-24 defeat to reigning Olympic champions Fiji. But Scotland’s men reached the quarter-finals and will face the Fijians.