Having seen both New Zealand and series leaders Fiji score dramatic late wins, England ended a fine first day at the Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens by beating the series' second-placed side South Africa 21-14 to take a confidence boost into day two.
In other notable performances Kenya were impressive in beating Samoa, Australia were ruthless against Argentina and New Zealand and Fiji left it late to claw back their matches against France and Canada, on a day that also saw a number of landmarks:
Australia captain Ed Jenkins scored his 100th try in their win against Argentina DJ Forbes became the joint most-capped player in the history of the series on 79 tournaments, now level with Samoa great Uale Mai England's James Rodwell matched South African Frankie Horne's marathon record of playing in 68 consecutive world series tournamentsClick here for all results and match details.
The race is on for the one promotion place available on the 2016-17 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series with Japan, Chile and Spain going unbeaten on day one of the 12-team qualifying event in Hong Kong.
The opening day's play produced plenty of upsets, with Morocco beating Tonga 19-17 and Germany drawing 14-14 with last year's finalists Zimbabwe, but it was Japan, Chile and Spain who bagged two wins from two on the opening day.
Qualifier results
The HSBC Sevens World Series, which is set to go past the 500,000 spectator mark for the season tomorrow, is broadcast on TV around the world and also made available in non-broadcast territories as a live stream to watch and also listen via World Rugby's TuneIn channel.
Find out where you can watch and listen
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