In one of the most exciting games of Day 2, England broke USA hearts' with an incredible Tom Mitchell cross-field kick and score to Phil Burgess in extra time for a 24-19 quarterfinal victory in the men's championship, booking themselves a semifinal spot at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
In a tight tit-for-tat style game, USA opened the scoring only minutes into the match, before England hit back with two of their own ahead of the halftime break. In a physical second half, England were quick to get back on the board in the opening minutes, but the USA refused to be held back with Folau Niua dotting it down, before superstar Perry Baker used his speed to beat the defence and get a score of his own and draw the scores level.
With only minutes remaining in regular time both sides were going at it hammer and tong, producing several big hits and plenty of physical moments, but neither could break through before the siren sounded and the game was sent into extra time.
Kicking off in golden point, England managed to claim their restart and went hunting for space out wide with Mitchell producing a perfectly weighted cross-field kick to find Burgess who had only open space in front of him.
England will now face South Africa in the semifinals on Sunday.
Unsurprisingly, the men's semifinal is completed by defending champions New Zealand and Olympic champions Fij after both sides came through their quarterfinals against France and Argentina respectively.
South Africa were hardly threatened in their dominant display over Scotland, with the Blitzbok securing a 36-5 victory. An impressive double from Werner Kok had the Blitzbok on the board early, before Justin Geduld continued his strong form scoring a double of his own, while Siviwe Soyizwapi added to his try scoring tally before Ruhan Nel added the Blitzbok's sixth try of the match. Scotland were able to produce a late consolation try, but it was just too little too late. Fiji also went through untested as they easily cast aside Argentina 43-7.
New Zealand faced a much tougher prospect when they took on France, who had shocked Australia and knocked them out of the tournament just a day earlier.
France took an early lead after New Zealand's Joe Ravouvou was sent from the field with a yellow card. Only minutes later captain Tim Mikkelson saw his own yellow card, but New Zealand's defence was able to keep France from adding to their total as they headed into the break. New Zealand saw a huge turnaround in the second half, with Kurt Baker dotting down under the posts before Ravouvou made up for his first half mistakes with a try to seal a semifinal place.
After a disappointing opening day, Australia were able to secure their place in the challenge semifinal after they hammered Russia 41-0.