New Zealand take sevens crown

Eric Rush led the All Blacks to victory

New Zealand proved too strong for Argentina as they raced to a 21-7 victory in the final of the IRB World Sevens tournament in Santiago, Chile.

The defending champions beat Australia 21-5 in the quarter-finals and Fiji 19-17 in the semi-finals, before outclassing Argentina.

Having already won the opening leg in Durban in November, New Zealand justified their position as favourites for a third consecutive World Sevens title.

The semi-final with Fiji was marred by crowd trouble

"We fulfilled all our hopes which were to win the tournament," said All Blacks skipper Eric Rush.

"Our team was made up of young players. Some weren't able to come to the Super 12, but we still reached our goal."

The semi-final with Fiji was marred by a pitch invasion by fans that held up play for several minutes.

England lost out to Samoa 21-12 in the Plate final after going down 36-7 to Fiji in the quarter-finals of the main event.

Two Mark Cueto tries gave them a 12-5 lead over Samoa but they could not hold on for victory.