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A confident France produced the biggest shock on the opening day of the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2009 with a 26-17 win over USA.

France’s returning stars made the difference against last month's USA Sevens Cup semi finalists as they ran in four tries, including one from Top 14 star Rida Jaouher. The USA were suffered from Todd Clever’s sin-binning and never recovered in time.
The match was one of several exciting encounters to captivate a vibrant crowd inside 'The Sevens’, Dubai’s impressive new purpose-built venue.

And it wasn’t only the match action a small but enthusiastic crowd got to enjoy. They were also treated to a colourful opening ceremony featuring camels and school children, before the top four seeds kicked off their respective campaigns at the end of the day.

In the other tightly contested match, Australia came out on top in their Pool D match against Portugal, 24-12. Two tries from flyer Damon Murphy proved decisive as Michael O'Connor's young side outscored its opponents four tries to two. David Mateus and Aderito Esteves both touched down for Portugal.

There were no other real shocks as Fiji and New Zealand had relatively comfortable passages over Georgia and Italy, both passing 1000 RWC Sevens points whilst doing so. Tom Varndell marked his return to sevens with a impressive brace where South Africa were made to work hard by Japan in the last game of the night, eventually coming through 26-5 in workmanlike manner.

Canada entertained the crowd with five tries as they downed Scotland 33-14. Scotland coach Stephen Gemmell could not hide his anger as his side committed several handling errors to gift Canada, and in particular Ciaran Hearn, easy points in the first half.

Collins Injera claimed a hat-trick as Kenya came out on top in their all-African clash with Tunisia 29-7. San Diego World Series title winners Argentina were made to work hard by a plucky Uruguay side before eventually running out 19-7 winners. Three tries, including one from captain Santiago Gomez Cora, put them 12 up at the break but a scoreless second half leaves coach Duncan Forrester with work to do.

Day 1 Results:

1. WALES 31, ZIMBABWE 5
2. KENYA 29, TUNISIA 7
3. AUSTRALIA 24, PORTUGAL 12
4. CANADA 33, SCOTLAND 14
5. FRANCE 26, UNITED STATES 17
6. TONGA 19, ARABIAN GULF 0
7. SAMOA 35, IRELAND 5
8. ARGENTINA 19, URUGUAY 7
9. ENGLAND 42, HONG KONG 5
10. NEW ZEALAND 42, ITALY 0
11. FIJI 26, GEORGIA 10
12. SOUTH AFRICA 26, JAPAN 5