Scotland 7s will compete in their fourth Bowl quarter-final of the HSBC Sevens World Series tomorrow after beating Japan in their final game on day one in Wellington.

With one victory at the group stage the Scots will open day two of the tournament at midnight tonight (GMT) taking on Kenya in pursuit of the trophy.

Today in Pool A, the team were first up against the hosts and the tournaments reigning champions, New Zealand, and despite leading at half-time went down 29-7. Next up they faced Samoa and were again, all square at half-time. However it was the south sea-islanders who won by just one score, 21-14.

The team did however end their day on a high, beating Japan 55-0, but one win wasn’t enough to reach their aim of a first Cup quarter-final.

Head coach, Graham Shiel, said: “We were in a tough group today. Tomorrow will be interesting in the Bowl competition. A lot of strong teams didn’t make the Cup so it is going to be fierce.

“The players played to a high intensity today and continue to showcase the brand of rugby we want to play. It’s disappointing we only managed one win.

“We targeted Samoa as the must win game of the day, but a yellow card given to Michael Fedo meant we lost the momentum.

“Against New Zealand we played well in the first half, and were competitive but we didn’t maintain our threat.

“Finally against Japan we simply needed to front up and dominate the match. We set ourselves apart from them and showed what we want to achieve in terms of our brand of rugby.”

“In order to do well tomorrow we have to perform to the highest level possible. Kenya are good, strong athletes, so from the outset we must dominate and play our game.”

Today did however see Colin Gregor score his 100th 2011/12 HSBC Sevens Series points making him the second top scorer on the circuit behind Frank Halai of New Zealand. Also James Fleming and Michael Fedo added to their ever increasing try count with two and three tries respectively. Byron McGuigan also touched down twice in his first outing with Scotland.

These scores were bolstered by tries from *Fraser Harkness, Colin Gregor, Adam Ashe and Andrew Turnbull.

Unfortunately Andrew Turnbull received an injury to his hand in the opening game and was forced to sit out the remaining matches.

Shiel said: “We don’t think it’s too serious at this point in time but we will keep Andrew under close supervision in the next 12 hours.”

Scotland results day one Wellington Sevens:
Scotland 7-29 New Zealand
Scotland 14-21 Samoa
Scotland 55-0 Japan

Wellington Sevens day two Bowl quarter-finals (local time):
1pm  Scotland v Kenya
1.22pm Wales v United States
1.44pm Australia v Japan
2.06pm Cook Islands v Argentina

*sportscotland institute supported player