Only world series champions New Zealand went unbeaten on the first day of rugby’s London Sevens at Twickenham on Saturday.

The Kiwis, who clinched their 11th series in 14 seasons the previous weekend in the Glasgow Sevens, easily beat Canada and Wales in their pool but found themselves 17-0 down at halftime to Kenya.

They won 31-17, with Kurt Baker and David Raikuna – yellow-carded in the first half – scoring two tries each.

In pursuit of a first London title since 2007, New Zealand will play Argentina in the quarter-finals on Sunday.

Also, defending champions Fiji meet Kenya, England tackle South Africa, and Australia play the United States.

Hosts England looked the most impressive side early on, thrashing third-ranked Fiji 27-0 and fourth-ranked Samoa 34-7 in front of a world record sevens crowd of 71,898.

But it all unravelled in the last game of the day, a 26-17 loss to Argentina.

England still topped the pool on points difference, and Fiji scraped into the last eight with a 33-7 defeat of Samoa.

Australia topped the other pool, beating the United States and France after losing to second-ranked South Africa 5-0.