The opening day of the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens has been full of twists and turns with New Zealand finishing top of Pool A with an unbeaten record, albeit only after France's Emmanuel Etien missed a penalty with the final act of the match.

The IRB Sevens World Series champions had led 21-0 at half-time, but France needed a victory and Thierry Janeczek's young side bravely fought back to 21-19.  New Zealand now face Pool B runners up Argentina in the Cup quarter-finals on Saturday, while Scotland face Fiji, the Pool B winners.

Samoa edged a tense final match with Wales 19-14 to top Pool C, Kenya claiming the runners-up spot after coming from behind to beat Wales. Samoa now face England in the last eight, while Kenya meet defending Dubai champions South Africa.

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POOL A

New Zealand opened the tournament with a 41-5 defeat of Scotland and then ran in 10 tries - including doubles from Zar Lawrence, Solomon King and Lote Raikabula - to overpower the Arabian Gulf 64-0.

Scotland bounced back well from their opening defeat to snatch a 17-12 victory over France with Ruaridh Jackson's match-winning try the final act. Stephen Gemmell's side then beat Arabian Gulf 27-5, but had to wait for France's match with New Zealand to know their fate.

France had beaten Arabian Gulf 26-0 in their opening match, but narrow defeats against Scotland and New Zealand left Janeczek's team facing a Bowl rather than a Cup quarter-final.

POOL B

Fiji may have seven newcomers in their team in Dubai, but they have hit the ground running, scoring tries almost at will in their victories over Argentina 31-19, Zimbabwe 34-5 and finally Australia 46-12.

The Argentineans recovered from that opening loss to crucially beat Australia 19-12 in their next match, two tries from Santiago Gomez Cora, the IRB Sevens World Series' all-time leading try scorer, seeing them overturn a 12-0 deficit.

Argentina then edged Zimbabwe 12-7 in their final match. The Africans though caught the eye on day one, particularly their speedsters Tangai Nemadire and Wensley Mbanje whose tries saw them push Australia to 28-21 in their first match.

POOL C

Samoa endured a scare in Rudi Moors' first match as coach and it was only a try by Alafoti Fa'osiliva with the last play that gave them a 24-19 win over Kenya, the Africans having fought back from 19-9 down at half time to tie the scores.

They made no mistake in the second match with Mikaele Pesamino scoring two tries in a 29-0 defeat of USA, before the last season's leading try scorer crossed again as Samoa came from behind to beat Wales and end their Cup hopes.

Kenya may have missed out against Samoa, but they though did cause an upset against Wales, coming from 12-0 down to triumph 14-12 with tries from Peter Ocholla and Dennis Mwanja. They then beat USA 12-7, meaning Wales had to beat Samoa if they were to reach the Cup quarter-finals.

POOL D

With Renfred Dazel, Danwel Demas and Fabian Juries in try scoring mood, South Africa have looked impressive with Canada beaten 31-5, Tunisia 42-0 and then England 22-10 in the final match of day one.

England had needed to avoid a heavy defeat against South Africa to join them in the last eight, their 24-24 draw with Canada having put Ben Ryan's young side under pressure. They had led 24-5 but a second try by Daniel van der Merwe and brace from Jordan Kozina levelled the scores to the Canadians delight.

Van der Merwe was again among the scorers as Canada held on to beat Tunisia 24-19, but England's loss against the South Africans was not by a big enough margin and Shane Thompson's side must instead contend themselves with a Bowl quarter-final against USA on Saturday.