Bristol's Anthony Elliott was denied by a last-ditch tackle before Samoa responded, recycling the ball swiftly and puncturing the England defence through the middle before spreading the ball wide for Alafoti Fa'osilvia to score.

England were resilient in defence to deny Samoa shortly before the break as the half ended 5-0.

Elliott latched on to a chip early in the second period, but had the ball knocked out of his hands with the line beckoning.

Ebbw Vale's Simon Hunt then took the direct approach, barging his way through to the line and Ben Gollings converted to put England in front.

Samoa's Mikaele Pesamino was denied a stoppage-time score when he put a foot in touch as England held on.

Hunt told PA Sport: ''You don't need to win by 40 points, you just need to beat teams and we'll take 7-5 - that's a massive margin.''

Earlier Ben Gollings had added to his IRB Sevens points record by scoring two of England's seven tries in what was a convincing 47-7 win over Sri Lanka.

England scored three tries within the first three minutes, Gollings was first over the line, John Brake (Northampton) wasn’t far behind with his second try of the tournament and Simon Hunt (Ebbw Vale) scored his first try of the competition. Gollings made a 90 metre run to secure his second try of the match and England led 28-0 going into the break.

Grand Slam U20s star Noah Cato (Saracens) found his feet early on in the second half scoring his first try for England Sevens with a huge run to cross the line. Second half replacements Anthony Elliott (Bristol Rugby) and Chris Mayor (Sale Sharks) made a massive impact both scoring tries within minutes of coming on.

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