Samoa won the IRB London Sevens while New Zealand clinched their eighth series victory despite a shock quarter-final defeat by England.

The Kiwis, who triumphed in London last year, have swept all before them this season but came unstuck in the last eight against the hosts.

Locked at 12-12 heading into the final seconds, Tom Biggs went over for the crucial try to give England a 17-12 victory.

That opened the door for South Africa to take the title race to the final event in Scotland next weekend, but they lost 12-0 to Argentina at the same stage.

England have suffered a largely poor series and could not progress past the semi-finals as they tumbled to a 14-12 defeat at the hands of Samoa, who went on to beat Fiji 19-14 in the final thanks to a hat-trick of tries from Lolo Lui.

Biggs told www.irb.com: "We haven't beaten New Zealand for a long time so that's one great achievement that we can take away from this tournament.

"We've got a few new players coming for Murrayfield next weekend and I'm sure they'll relish that having seen some of us win our first caps here."

Scotland were beaten 19-17 by Fiji in the quarter-finals and then lost out to South Africa in the semi-finals of the Plate.

Wales reached the final of the Bowl but lost 19-12 to Australia while New Zealand ensured they did not leave empty handed, beating South Africa by the same score in the Plate final.

Spain upset Kenya 10-7 to take the Shield - their first piece of IRB Sevens Series silverware since 2004.

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