The New Zealand men's sevens team will play Samoa in this evening's quarter-finals at the Singapore leg of the World Series after going through pool play unbeaten.
The All Blacks Sevens edged Argentina 14-10 in their opening group game, before beating Scotland 19-7 and crushing Wales 43-5 on day one of the event.
In their pool match, Samoa led 10-7 at half-time versus Australia, who were third in the overall standings heading into Singapore, but the latter fought back to come out on top 26-17. The tries for the victors came from Matthew Gonzalez, Josh Turner, Corey Toole and Timothy Clements.
Samoa, who missed the last two rounds in Spain after pandemic-based travel issues, then served notice of their power as they saw off England 31-5. They led 19-0 and went from there, their try scorers being Steve Rimoni, Vaa Apelu Maliko, Uaina Sione, Melani Matavao and Owen Fetu.
Australia were just as impressive against Spain, leading 21-0 at half-time and eventually getting the victory 28-12. Matthew Gonzalez and Josh Turner both scored two tries apiece.
Then Samoa beat Spain 26-14 in the third round of pool games to make sure they would finish second and progress to the Cup knock-out stages. They were down by two points at the break, but second half scores from Owen Fetu and Indiha Saotui-Huta - both converted - saw them home.
The United States, South Africa, Australia, Samoa, New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Ireland have made it through to Sunday's Cup quarter-finals.
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