Day two of the HSBC Canada Sevens has taken its toll on the top teams. South Africa, Fiji and New Zealand, all in the top four in the world, all failed to survive the second day of the Vancouver tournament, the 200th HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series event.

South Africa were knocked out in the group stage for the first time this season and failed to bounce back in their ninth place quarter-final against Kenya. The Blitzboks had not experienced this situation since the end of the 2022 season (Toulouse in May, then Los Angeles in August). Third in the standings, they will now have to fight for 13th place.

The Pumas 7s also beat Fiji in the dying moments of their quarter-final thanks to a brace from the impressive Marcos Moneta. They will play their Cup semi-final against Ireland.

France, who were rescued at the last minute, proved that they have what it takes to compete with the world's top four by beating Great Britain in a well-controlled second half. In 2019, after a disappointing tournament in Las Vegas, where they had finished in the bottom of the table, Les Bleus had finished with a silver medal around their neck a week later, already in Vancouver. Will Jérôme Daret's men repeat the feat? In any case, they are well on track.

They will not have New Zealand in their way as they were eliminated from the Cup race by Australia, a first for this season. The second day of the tournament saw the mid-table teams rise to the occasion: France (7th), Australia (6th) and Ireland (9th).

QUARTER-FINALS: FIJI AND NEW ZEALAND KNOCKED OUT OF THE CUP RACE

In the first quarter-final, France had two good opportunities to take the lead in the first half after Max McFarland opened the score for Great Britain: a short pass for Barraque and a weak run for Parez. Two points were quickly forgiven at the start of the second half with Paul Leraître finishing a try after an assist from the highly-valuable Theo Forner this weekend, both in defence and in attack, who scored twice shortly afterwards. An error on Barraque in the British 22 allowed the French to take advantage of their superiority to take out Great Britain (7-15) and qualify for the semi-finals against Australia.

The next match would see a major team fall, either Argentina or Fiji. Jerry Tuwai, a two-time Olympic gold medallist at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, used his strong skills to open the score. The Pumas 7s quickly found the gaps, locked down the Fijian defence and created space for Matías Osadczuk and Marcos Moneta to run into. The same Moneta who missed a golden opportunity in the second half, letting Fiji back into the game. The key to the 14-all scoreline was a late tackle that earned Fiji a yellow card and sent Moneta diving for a try to send his team into the last four (19-14) for the third time this season.

New Zealand, who have won back-to-back tournaments in Sydney and Los Angeles, began their quarter-final against Australia by conceding two first-half tries (Henry Paterson and Darby Lancaster), despite scoring a try from Ngarohi McGarvey-Black. But the All Blacks Sevens couldn't find the strength to bounce back in the second half, leaving Australia to pile on the points with Paterson scoring twice. With injuries disrupting their progress in recent weeks, Australia produced a big performance to knock out the men in black in the quarter-finals (7-17), something that had never happened before this season.

Absolute scenes from Zac Ward 💯 #Canada7s | #HSBC7s | @IrishRugby pic.twitter.com/iNuBWz0XJJ
— World Rugby 7s (@WorldRugby7s) March 5, 2023

After a strong start behind Jack Kelly, Ireland were slowed in their play by USA, who were not about to let a chance to qualify for their fourth Cup semi-final this season slip away. Perry Baker, the third highest try scorer of all time, gave hope with his 250th try, snatching a draw before the break. A draw was nurtured by Jordan Conroy and Malacchi Esdale, forcing both teams to extend the fun in sudden death (first to score wins). No points in the first five minutes. Night surrounds BC Place and the sun peeks out in Europe. Suddenly, in the middle of the second extra time, Zac Ward broke through and gave Ireland a 15-10 win and a semi-final against Argentina.

POOL A: USA TO THE END OF THE EFFORT

It only took 15 seconds for USA to score against Spain, and a few more minutes for Spain to respond. The last time these two teams met, the week before in Los Angeles, Los Leones won by a narrow margin. At half-time at the BC Place in Vancouver, the game was just as close at 14-all and the score remained that way until the 12th minute.

USA Men's Eagles Sevens' fast, skilful and bouncing play masked their fatigue after such an intense game where all forces cancel each other out, and led to David Still scoring the try that could have made the difference with just seconds left. But Spain did not give up. They took advantage of a penalty awarded in extra time to give it all and while Perry Baker couldn't stop an attack, Jaime Manteca managed to snatch a draw (19-19).

USA finished second behind New Zealand, who easily beat Samoa 40-5 by six tries to one, including a Joe Weber hat-trick and an Akuila Rokolisoa run of almost 100 metres at the buzzer. The All Blacks Sevens will play Australia in the quarter-finals while the USA will meet Ireland.

POOL B: FRANCE SAVED AT THE LAST MINUTE, SOUTH AFRICA KNOCKED OUT

After their draw against the Blitzboks and their defeat against Los Pumas the day before, France knew it before they took the field to face Japan: only a big win against their last opponent in the pool and an Argentina win against South Africa could allow them to reach the quarter-finals. Only a big win against their last opponents in the pool and an elimination of South Africa by Argentina would allow them to continue in the quarter-finals. With four tries in the first half, including a brace from Paul Leraître, two conversions from Jean-Pascal Barraque and a superb try saving from Varian Pasquet on the line just before the break, the first part of the challenge seemed to be well underway.

France followed this up with four more tries and broke the 40-point barrier. Josua Kerevi's try failed to stop the machine and France 7 won by a large margin 46-5, which is the second largest result scored against Japan (the 1st being a 50-7 in Cape Town in 2016).

It remained to see how Argentina would perform against South Africa. Both teams immediately put a lot of intensity into this 70th encounter, preventing the other from scoring. At the break, the score remained goalless, a rare occurrence in the history of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. In 69 meetings, these two teams have only drawn once.

Theo Forner making his mark 💪@FranceRugby advance to the Cup Semi-Finals!@DHLRugby | #ImpactMoment | #Canada7s pic.twitter.com/31hMotvmO3
— World Rugby 7s (@WorldRugby7s) March 5, 2023

It wasn't until the 11th minute that replacement Marcos Moneta broke the tie and gave Argentina the lead. Two minutes later, German Schulz scored after a nice assist from his teammate to strengthen Les Bleus' hopes of playing in quarter-finals against Great Britain (12-0). This is the first time this season that South Africa have been knocked out in the pool stage.

POOL C: FIJI'S COMEBACK

As in Sydney 2023 the last time the two teams met, Kenya, trailing by two points at the break, did not give up against Uruguay. But unlike at the end of January, this time it was Los Teros who won (21-19), winning their second pool match to put themselves in a strong position. Only a Great Britain win over Fiji would have allowed them to finish second in the pool and thus play a quarter-final, which would have been a record for this team back on the World Series fighting for retention.

The start of the next match was all about that, with a superb first-half hat-trick from Welshman Tom Williams (118 caps) troubling the Fijians, who tried to reassure themselves just before the break through Waisea Nacuqu.

The Fijians were not to relive recent painful memories of their disappointment at failing to qualify for the quarter-finals (in Dubai in early December), but Ben Gollings' men quickly bounced back with a succession of tries in the second half, gradually moving back ahead of the British side who had no further scoring opportunities. Fiji's comeback was outstanding, trailing 7-15 at the break, they finished 26-15 and were set to face Argentina in the quarter-finals while Great Britain were set to play France.

Despite two wins in the pool phase, the first against Fiji on the first day and the second against Kenya on the second, Uruguay failed to qualify.

POOL D: LONGBOTTOM QUALIFIES AUSTRALIA FOR THE QUARTER FINALS

After the women's victory over Brazil earlier in the day, Canada men also had their chance to beat a South American team to finish their pool phase well. A brace from Josiah Morra, another from Matthew Percillier, who scored in the win over Australia the day before, and a last gasp effort from Jake Thiel ruined any hope of Chile, a regular guest in Vancouver, threatening Canada, despite a 13th minute try from Baltazar Jana.

Despite the 35-7 victory, Canada finished with two wins in the pool stage but no chance of progressing to the quarter-finals.

Australia, suffering from their loss to Canada the day before, struggled to get back on track against Ireland in their final pool match of the day. Despite an early try from Darby Lancaster, the Aussies were unable to extend their lead at the break against an Irish side willing to sacrifice themselves to keep the game close. Jordan Conroy's try, the 100th of his World Series career, cancelled out Dally Bird's earlier try and Australia needed to score to qualify. Henry Paterson did so at the very end and thanks to Maurice Longbottom's magic boot, Australia booked their place in the quarter-finals against New Zealand (21-7).

Placing matches

In the quarter-finals for 9th place, Uruguay followed up with a third straight win against Japan 14-7, South Africa fell further into doubt by losing to Kenya 12-17 in the last seconds, Samoa beat Chile by a wide margin 28-12 and Spain did not let Canada shine at home, 14-19.