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The top seeds all proceeded unbeaten past their opening test on day one of the Cathay Pacific/ Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens in wet and slippery conditions. England, New Zealand, Argentina and Fiji scored 26 unanswered tries between them against China, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei. 

South Africa and Kenya were pushed harder by Korea and the West Indies but also won through. Scotland won their vital Pool F clash with USA 19-17 and will look forward to locking horns with Kenya tomorrow. World Champions Wales were made to work very hard to beat the plucky Japanese, with their youngsters getting the job done 14-5.

Defending champions New Zealand made light of "atrocious" conditions in their 59-0 workout against minnows Sri Lanka.

Lote Raikabula starred with three tries and Wellington Hurricanes flier Victor Vito got two as New Zealand go in search of their first title this season.

"It's quite atrocious out there. It's really slippery," said coach Gordon Tietjens.

"Your concentration level's got to be right up there." South Africa, joint series leaders along with England after wins in Dubai and George, later beat South Korea 29-7.

The Monsoon conditions took England, four-time winners, by surprise, forcing a last-ditch scramble with the longer, wet-weather studs arriving by courier just 30 minutes before the start.

"It's not particularly professional of the boys. I gave them an earful for not bringing the appropriate footwear," said coach Ben Ryan.

Despite the poor preparations and difficult conditions, England were dynamite as they capitalised on a hatful of errors by China.

Dan Caprice scored a second-half hat-trick and Kevin Barrett and Josua Drauniniu got two each as England set about erasing the pain of their quarter-final loss in this month's World Cup.

"We were ruthless," said Ryan. "That's what I asked the boys to be and that's what they were.

"That was our first opportunity to vent our frustration after our disappointment and there's still far more frustration to put out there."

At the midway stage in the season South Africa and England lie in joint-top position on 60 Series points. The Boks won the opening two events in Dubai and George, England hit back with victory in Wellington and were then beaten to the Cup in San Diego by Argentina, who lie just behind New Zealand in fourth place overall so far.

With 30 points on offer to the Cup winners here in Hong Kong, the 24-team event could go a long way to deciding the outcome of the Series.

With only one side guaranteed a place in the Cup quarter finals from each pool, the onus is on every team to score as many points as possible in Hong Kong.

Wallaroos win HK women's title

Australia's World Champion Wallaroos swept all before them en route to victory in the Cable & Wireless Hong Kong women's tournament.

The Wallaroos, who beat New Zealand to the World title in Dubai earlier this month but still had to fund part of their own flights to Hong Kong, overcame Tunisia, Singapore, Guam and Arabian Gulf in their pool, before overcoming World Cup Bowl winners China 24-7 in the final with tries from Rebecca Tavo (2), Cheryl Soon and Debbie Hodgkinson. China's fine try came from Yang Hong.

"It's a fairytale, I'm so proud of the way the girls have performed throughout this tournament and we're certainly filling up the trophy cabinet at the ARU," said captain Cheryl Soon.

"We knew China were going to be physical, we knew they would be good at the breakdown and they dominated I thought, we had to get it out to our backs and we did that.

"I've been here six times and never won it before, we've always been bridesmaids, so to win this here is really special."

Day 1: As it Happened

Day 1 Results

Match 1. Pool F - Kenya 17 West Indies 0
Match 2: Pool E - Fiji 33 Chinese Taipei 0
Match 3: Pool D – Argentina 28 Hong Kong 0
Match 4: Pool C – New Zealand 59 Sri Lanka 0
Match 5: Pool B – England 54 China 0
Match 6: Pool A – South Africa -29 Korea 7
Match 7: Pool F – USA 17 Scotland 19
Match 8: Pool E – Samoa 14 Canada 10
Match 9: Pool D – Portugal 17 Tonga 5
Match 10: Pool C – Australia 33 Zimbabwe 5
Match 11: Pool B – Wales 14 Japan 5
Match 12: Pool A – France 17 Uruguay 5

Women's Final - Australia 24 China 7