England off to flyer

Dan Caprice (pictured) capped his Hong Kong debut with three of England's eight tries after coming on as a substitute in the second half.

Before that Joshua Drauniniu and Kevin Barrett got England off to a storming start with two tries apiece. Isoa Damu also crossed the line and Ben Gollings kicked all but one of his conversion attempts to add 14 points.

With double points handed out in Hong Kong, England know victory here will help them move clear of South Africa in the rankings of South Africa, with the two sides currently tied on 60 points.

Barrett said: "It's one of the best starts we've had over the years as an England team.

"It's difficult conditions with the humidity, but we kept it simple and we did what we set out to do.

"Now we go home, do the right things recovery-wise and come back and try for more of the same tomorrow."

In the following game the South Africans overcame an early wobble to eventually run out 29-7 winners over Korea.

The game started true to form with South Africa going ahead early on through a Philip Snyman try.

But a minute later Kim Won-Yong crossed the line for Korea to make sure the teams were level on 7-7 at the break.

But with some wise words from coach Paul Treu ringing in their ears the Springboks picked up to add four more tries in the second half from Mpho Mbiyozo, Ryno Benjamin, Robert Ebersohn and Kyle Brown to make sure they matched England with a win.

"I thought today we got dragged into a kicking game with Korea in the first few minutes and that wasn't our plan," Treu said.

"Any team at this tournament is going to come at you hard in the first few minutes. At the break I just told the lads to keep it together, to keep it simple and to keep to the plan and we got the result."

Earlier in the day reigning Hong Kong champions New Zealand stormed past Sri Lanka 59-0.

With a little more than a minute played Lote Raikabula ran to the corner for the first of four New Zealand tries in the first half.

Zar Lawrence followed him over soon after before a long pass to wing found Victor Vito who beat the last man of the Sri Lankan defence with a classy dummy.

Raikabula added his second and New Zealand's fourth try shortly before half-time, then completed his hat-trick soon after the break.

Vito added his second in the corner soon after, before a quick exchange of passes put DJ Forbes over the line for New Zealand's seventh try of the match.

Substitute Nigel Hunt got the eighth before Jordan Puletua, making his debut for New Zealand, scored the ninth.

Before that, in the opening game of the tournament, Kenya, came from a try down to beat the West Indies 17-10, while Fiji then had no problems seeing off Chinese Taipei in a 33-0 rout as Pio Tuwai ran in two tries for the Pacific islanders.

Argentina saw off a spirited Hong Kong side with similar ease, running out 28-0 winners.