England beat France to retain Dubai Sevens title

Image caption, England have now won the Dubai Sevens title four times

England retained their Dubai Sevens title with a 29-12 victory over France.

England triumphed the hard way with a 10-7 quarter-final victory over New Zealand and a 19-12 semi-final win against Fiji.

Tries from Isoa Damudamu and Dan Norton put England in control of the final before Matt Turner scored twice as Ben Ryan's men raced into a 24-7 lead.

France added a second try but England sealed their fourth Dubai title with a late Rob Vickerman score.

English rugby has been in turmoil since the World Cup and sevens coach Ryan was delighted to bring some cheer to England fans.

Ryan said: "We have got some good news this afternoon. We played well. I was glad we had a hard game in the quarter-final and the semi-final, we raise our game when we play a hard team.

"We played some clever football out there and we were pretty ruthless. A 20-point win in a world series final is not to be sniffed at."

England were beaten by New Zealand in the quarter-finals at the series-opening tournament on the Gold Coast last weekend, which Fiji eventually won.

England's victory in Dubai lifted them to second in the HSBC world series table, behind Fiji.

Wales lost to South Africa in the plate semi-finals and Scotland won the bowl with a 26-0 victory over the United States.