Scotland booked a place in the Cup quarter-finals with a six-try victory over the USA to top Pool C at the Emirates Airline London Sevens at Twickenham this afternoon.

Having recovered from a demoralising loss to Kenya in the first tie of the day, the Scots went onto defeat Fiji, who are currently sitting third in the IRB Sevens World Series standings. Their latest victory over USA guarantees them a place in the Cup quarter-finals where they will play Portugal at 1:12pm tomorrow.

Scotland 7s coach Stephen Gemmell said: “That was an outstanding effort by all twelve players out there.

“The day started with disappointment and maybe in the past that second half against Kenya may have destroyed our game but there are some experienced players in this squad, some real winners, and they just refused to suffer that set-back.
 
“To come back and beat Fiji and then to follow that up with an outstanding performance against USA was outstanding.
 
“It’s not easy to score 40 points in 14 minutes but they did it and what an effort it was to defend their line. They knew 38 points would guarantee us a place in the Cup quarter-finals and it was an incredible effort to defend the way they did.”
 
“Great effort and we look forward to whoever we play tomorrow."
 
Pool C, Game 3 - USA 0, Scotland 40
In their final game of the first day, a hat-trick of tries and an air-tight defence ensured Scotland a healthy half-time advantage.
 
Edinburgh back-row Ally Hogg was the engine room for such an important win, and was first to find the score-sheet.
 
A cross-field kick to Hogg saw the ball shifted right where Andrew Turnbull soaked in the defence. The ball was then returned left through the hands of John Houston, Roddy Grant, Greig Laidlaw and eventually to Hogg who dotted down.
 
Only a minute later, captain Scott Forrest was almost shoved into touch. But a neat back-handed pass kept the ball alive. Grant went into contact, and from the break down, the ball was spun right to Turnbull who jinked inside to score. Colin Gregor converted.
 
Moments before the break, Houston took the ball into contact straight from the restart. He offloaded from the deck to Forrest who charged between the posts. Gregor converted.
 
Half-time score: USA 0, Scotland 19
 
Having set up the last try of the first half, Houston claimed the first try of the second.
 
Hogg continued to disrupt the Americans at the breakdown and turned-over possession and popped the ball to Greig Laidlaw who released Houston for the score. Gregor converted.
 
Gregor, Scotland’s highest ever points scorer in IRB events, was next to find the whitewash as Hogg once again worked hard to retrieve possession. Despite adequate support out wide, Gregor had the power to force his way between the posts.
 
Having admitted after the game that he had visions of Hogg bursting clear to score a spectacular solo try as just reward for his relentless work ethic, Gemmell almost witnessed his reverie in front of him as Hogg charged through the USA defence.
 
The 48-times capped international didn’t quite have the pace to reach the line, but with Gregor and Turnbull in support, Hogg passed to his Edinburgh team-mate who finished the attack over the line. Gregor converted.
 
Scotland 7s’ starting team v USA: Scott Forrest (Ayr)* CAPTAIN, Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh), John Houston (Edinburgh)
 
Pool C, Game 2 - Fiji 7, Scotland 12
Following their defeat to Kenya in the first game of the day, Scotland bounced back into contention for a place in the Cup quarter-finals at the Emirates Airline London Sevens with a win over Fiji who are currently placed third in the IRB Sevens World Series Standings.
 
A delighted Scotland 7s coach, Stephen Gemmell, said: “I’ve said all along that this team is capable of playing top quality sevens and they’ve just shown it there.
 
“In terms of our performance, it makes a perfect statement about Scottish 7s. We’ve been disappointed all year about how we’ve performed, but we’ve got together a squad this year that at these two tournaments in London and Edinburgh we can be competitive. We’ve shown in our first two games that we can be.
 
“We’ve just beaten a Fiji team that won in Hong Kong and ran close a Kenya team who were finalists in Adelaide.
 
“We’re disappointed with the second half against Kenya but the encouraging thing for me was that we dug deep for 14 minutes and with one minutes to go against Fiji, everyone was defending with their hearts.”
 
For the second time today, Scotland found themselves ahead at the break. An early touchdown from captain Scott Forrest buoyed the Scots but they weathered a very turbulent storm in the opening seven minutes.
 
Although Fiji were soon down to six men due to an off the ball incident during Forrest’s try, the disadvantage in numbers did little to quell their hunger for the whitewash.
 
Scotland almost doubled their lead moments later when Thom Evans kicked ahead from inside own 22. A secondary chip ahead to help control the bounce of the ball saw Evans knock on despite being clear through for the try.
 
Half-time score: Fiji 0, Scotland 5
 
Fiji started the second half brightly and as Evans brought down Pio Tuwai, the Fijian danced in the tackle and gave a sublime one-handed offload behind his back to send Emosi Vucago over the line.
 
With Fiji two points better off following the successful conversion, Scotland were back in possession.
 
Andrew Turnbull hugged the touchline and jinked his way through the opposition defence. His offload found Greig Laidlaw who dived over to regain the lead. Gregor converted.
 
Afterwards, Gemmell added: “We just need to keep our feet on the ground, get our recovery done and build on that result, and just be a little more accurate. It might seem strange an international coach talking about improvements when you’ve just beaten one of the top teams in the world, but that’s what we need to do.
 
“It can’t just be a flash in the pan. We need to build on that and take it into the next game against the USA.”
 
Scotland 7s’ starting team v Fiji: Scott Forrest (Ayr)* CAPTAIN, Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Jim Thompson (Edinburgh), Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Thom Evans (Glasgow Warriors)
 
Pool C, Game 1 - Kenya 17, Scotland 12
The Scotland 7s team lost their first game on day one of the Emirates Airline London Sevens against Kenya today.
 
Speaking after the first tie, Scotland 7s coach Stephen Gemmell said: “We’re disappointed with how the game ended.
 
“We lost with the last touch of the ball against one of the top teams in the World Series this year. But we need to learn to win those games.
 
“It was encouraging, that with the last play of the game, we were kicking to the corner looking to have a go, but we need to keep a hold of the ball.
 
“In the first half, we dominated them physically in both attack and defence, but the specific fitness in sevens kicked-in a little bit with a number of our players.”
 
Happy with how Thom Evans and Ally Hogg contributed to the first match, Gemmell added: “We know they are quality rugby players. I’m delighted Ally fronted up, I knew he would do, and Thom has learned that players will chase you down at this level. But to be fair, Thom chased down others as well.”
 
Tries from Mike Adamson and Colin Gregor gave Scotland a well deserved 12-point half-time lead.
 
With two minutes on the clock, Thom Evans scooped up a chip ahead. The Scotland internationalist burned up the left wing only to be brought down short of the line.
 
A knock-on gave Kenya a scrum ten yards from their line. However, with Adamson menacing around the back, he pinched the scrum-halves pass towards clearing kicker and touched down in the corner. Gregor slotted the most difficult of conversions as he hugged the touchline.
 
Kenya found themselves a man down through injury which opened a gap in midfield. Ally Hogg skipped through the gap and offloaded to Gregor in support who crossed the line.
 
Half-time score: Kenya 0, Scotland 12
 
The second half saw Kenya gradually make their way into the contest.
 
An early try from Humphrey Kayange shook the Scots and it was shortly followed up by a score from the top try scorer in the 2008/09 IRB Sevens World Series, Collins Injera.
 
Sidney Ashioya slipped out of the tackle from Andrew Turbull and, in a one-on-one with Colin Gregor, he offloaded to Injera who touched down. Biko Adema added the extras.
 
With the scores level, it was up to Scotland to dig deep and take control of the game once more.
 
Colin Gregor sent a penalty on half-way into touch to give Scotland a line-out little over 22-metres from the Kenyan line.
 
The Scots won their own ball and the final hooter sounded as it was spun wide. A knock-on from Turnbull conceded possession and Kenya gradually made their way upfield.
 
A gaping hole appeared in midfield and Kayange found his way to the line, beating Gregor for pace.
 
Gemmell concluded: “We’ve still got a massive challenge coming up against Fiji and we need to move on very quickly from that first game and meet them head-on.”
 
Scotland 7s’ starting team v Kenya: Scott Forrest (Ayr)* CAPTAIN, Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Jim Thompson (Edinburgh), Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Thom Evans (Glasgow Warriors)
 
Scotland 7s squad to compete at the final two events on the IRB Sevens World Series in London (23 and 24 May) and Edinburgh (30 and 31 May): Scott Forrest (Ayr)* CAPTAIN, Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Thom Evans (Glasgow Warriors), Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), John Houston (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Hefin O’Hare (Glasgow Warriors), Colin Shaw (Glasgow Warriors), Jim Thompson (Edinburgh), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh)

* = Member of Scottish Rugby’s Contracted National Academy

London Pool C: Fiji, Kenya, USA, Scotland

Scotland 7s’ Pool C fixtures on day one (Saturday 23 May) of the Emirates Airline London Sevens: Kenya v Scotland (kick-off 12:41pm), Fiji v Scotland (kick-off 3:25pm), USA v Scotland (6:21pm)