Defending champions New Zealand off to a flier as Rugby Sevens World Series gets underway Down Under

By Nick Butler

October 12 - All of the top seeded nations negotiated the opening day of the 2013-2014 Rugby Sevens World Series on the Gold Coast, although it was defending champions New Zealand who were most impressive as they conceded not a single point in their three pool matches.

The All Blacks, managed by Sir Gordon Tietjens, swept aside the United States 38-0, Tonga 26-0 and Kenya 31-0 to set up a quarter final against Samoa.

It remains early stages of the tournament and indeed the season but, after they finished 41 points clear of South Africa to win last year's series, they have certainly made an ominously strong start towards a title defence.

They also secured the first try-scorer of the season courtesy of Waisake Naholo against the US in the opening match of the day.

The South Africans were the only other nation to maintain a 100 per cent record on the opening day in Australia as they survived a tough 22-14 victory over England after more comfortable triumphs over Spain and France.

Elsewhere, after a 21-21 opening draw with Scotland due to James Fleming's last minute try, Australia used all of their home support to defeat both Argentina and Samoa to top their pool.

They will now face Kenya in the last eight while South Africa will face Wales.

However the stand out quarter final match up will pit the defending Gold Coast champions Fiji against Simon Amor's England outfit.

Wales Chris Knight brushes off his Fijian opponent during the match of the day at the season opening rugby sevens world series event on the Gold Coast

This is particularly because the Fijians are managed by Ben Ryan, who stood down as England manager after six years at the helm just a month before taking up the new position.

Fiji lost an exciting finale against Wales after hammering Portugal and defeating Canada while England thrashed Spain 54-7 and also ousted France before their South Africa reverse.

England's Dan Bibby scored the first hat-trick of the season in the Spain match, while Dan Norton managed two against France.

This represented a good start for new head coach Amor.

He was one of nine new coaches to feature in the opening event of the season - a sign perhaps of the impending Commonwealth Games at Glasgow next year, as well as the sport's Olympic debut at Rio 2016.

The season opener will finish tomorrow where the winner will be decided from the eight quarter-finalists with all the other teams going into the plate competition.