London: England ensured Great Britain would be represented at next year’s inaugural Olympic rugby sevens tournament after reaching the quarter-finals of the London Sevens on Saturday.

Thumping wins over Kenya (40-0) and Brazil (56-7) saw the hosts into the last eight in front of a record Sevens crowd at Twickenham of 77,033.

This tournament is the final leg of the 2014-15 Sevens World Series and the top four teams at the end of the standings qualify for the Olympics.

Fiji, the overall leaders, South Africa and New Zealand had already booked their places in Rio before the London tournament started and England were always likely to follow them given they had a 16-point lead over fifth-placed Australia even before Saturday’s first kick-off at Twickenham.

Team GB chef de mission Mark England said: “It’s fantastic to welcome rugby sevens to Team GB and it’s hugely exciting to know that will be represented in the sport at an Olympic Games for the first time.

“To secure the quota places here in London at the end of the first qualification phase is a great achievement and we can now look forward to Rio 2016 next summer.”

But England didn’t have things all their own way, with their unbeaten start ending when they suffered a surprise 22-19 defeat by old rivals Scotland, who in the process maintained their 100 per cent record on the day.

Scotland finished top of Pool C and will face Australia in the quarter-finals on Sunday, while runners-up England play New Zealand.

But Fiji will win this season’s overall series title if they beat second-placed South Africa in their last-eight clash.

The Pacific Islanders won all three of their pool matches on Saturday, meaning they had a perfect group-stage record of 27 victories this season.

Fiji are now on the brink of their first World Series title since 2006 and coach Ben Ryan, looking ahead to Sunday’s match with the Blitzboks, said: “It will give us an outcome.

“I’m pleased we’ve done the whole season unbeaten in the pool stages, that’s a big achievement.

“We win tomorrow (Sunday) morning, we win the world title — simple as that. It’s good to be in control of our own destiny. We are in a Cup final tomorrow, anything after that is irrelevant really.”

— AFP