America maintained their excellent form at the Sam Boyd Stadium with a 17-12 victory over England.

Perry Baker opened the scoring and eventually managed a hat-trick of tries as the hosts proved too strong despite English scores by Ollie Lindsay-Hague and Dan Norton.

Norton managed his 279th World Rugby Sevens Series try and almost had a chance to level the scores at the death only to prove unable to latch on to an ambitious offload from Harry Glover.

"We came in to this tournament knowing we’ve made the semi-final three years in a row and it was all about taking that next step," said US captain Ben Pinkelman afterwards.

"So were just going to come out, stick to our game-plan and hopefully we will be able to make it all the way to that Cup."

Fiji continued their epic rivalry with New Zealand to take a narrow 14-10 victory. 

Fiji’s Jerry Tuwai capitalised upon two late penalties to score the winning try over a minute after the final hooter.

It marked a 46th win over New Zealand for the Fijians in comparison with 47 victories for their opponents.

Argentina and South Africa completed the semi-final line-up in the bottom half of the draw.

The Argentinians were given a stern examination before beating Kenya 17-12 in the quarter-finals after tries by Conrad Roura, Felipe del Mestre and Renzo Barbier.

South Africa were eventually the most comfortable quarter-final winners as they beat Australia 29-17.

They had to come from behind, however, after two Australian first-half tries by John Porch.

Philip Snyman and Ryan Oosthuizen levelled the scores before half-time before Cecil Afrika, Ruhan Nel and Selvyn Davids all crossed in the second.

Both semi-finals are due to take place tomorrow before the medal matches.

South Africa, whose run to the Series title last season included a triumph in Las Vegas, lead the current standings on 77 points with New Zealand second on 69 and Fiji third on 62.