Australia have stolen a thrilling quarter-final victory at the Sydney Sevens with teenager Henry Hutchison sinking English hearts at Allianz Stadium.
Young gun Hutchison showed his extreme pace to cross before fulltime and then in extra time for the home side to stay alive in the tournament with a dramatic 17-12 triumph.
The golden try meant the Thunderbolts finally broke their world series quarter-final jinx after being bundled out at the same stage of the previous three legs of the competition.
England grabbed the ascendancy early when James Rodwell took advantage of some indecisive defence to crossed under the posts.
The home side fluffed chances on both sidelines soon after but a superb covering tackle by Henry Speight gave them possession just before halftime when Lewis Holland pounced to level the scores.
England grabbed a 12-7 lead when Tom Mitchell finished a wonderful team try.
But Hutchison scrambled over in the last minute of play to force extra-time. He repeated the dose at the other end of the ground to trigger Allianz Stadium celebrations.
Meantime, New Zealand haven’t let a World Rugby investigation into an eight-man breach affect them, swatting aside the United States 24-7 in their quarter-final.
The All Black Sevens are facing possible disciplinary action from the sport’s governing body after World Rugby on Sunday morning confirmed a probe into Saturday night’s pool draw with Australia.
World Rugby says the 17-all result will stand but they are reviewing whether an extra player was on the pitch in the last minute of play to “determine if any disciplinary action is warranted”.
Australia led 17-10 in the dying moments of their match when vision from television cameras showed eight New Zealanders on Allianz Stadium before Ardie Savea scored under the posts.
NZ took top spot on pool A on for-and-against and played the Americans in their Cup quarter-final, where the Americans put up a strong early fight.
But when they couldn’t capitalise on the first-half sin-binning of Kiwi captain Tim Mikkelson, the All Black Sevens team pounced.
They took a 14-0 lead into halftime with tries to Ben Lam and Augustine Pulu, and then went on with the job after the break.
New Zealand will play Fiji in their semi-final after the Fijians disposed of Kenya 28-12.
