Portugal have reached the Cup quarter-finals of the Emirates Airline London Sevens alongside the world's top rugby nations.

The Portuguese caused an early upset on day one at Twickenham by beating Australia 28-12 and, although they lost out against Fiji, they ground out a win against Canada and then watched on as Fiji beat the Australians to assure them of a place in the last eight.

London Sevens Audio-Video: Watch the tries, hear the reaction!

Defending London and IRB Series champions New Zealand were far from convincing, edging past Argentina with a last-gasp try and conceding two tries in their win against Moldova before putting in a stronger performance to beat Wales 24-0.

The kiwis now need only one more win to guarantee the defence of their Series crown, although the defence of their London title looks a far trickier proposition. South Africa have looked the strongest of the sides on day one, Gio Aplon, Fabian Juries and Danwel Demas all impressing for Paul Treu's Boks.

Cup quarter final line-up:

New Zealand v England
Samoa v Portugal
Fiji v Scotland
South Africa v Argentina

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POOL A

New Zealand needed a late try from Tomasi Cama to avoid defeat against Argentina in the opening match, capitalising on the sin-binning of Santiago Gomez Cora to sneak home 10-7. Wales were more convincing winners in their first match, Martin Roberts scoring a hat-trick in their 52-7 defeat of IRB Sevens World Series debutants Moldova.

The defending champions might have been expected to run in the tries against Moldova in their second match, but the newcomers left the pitch to huge cheers after touching down twice in a 38-14 defeat. Argentina then scored a late try through Tomas Passerotti to draw 21-21 with Wales in an end to end encounter.

Argentina finished their day one campaign with a seven-try 43-7 defeat of Moldova, but had to wait for the outcome of the New Zealand-Wales match to learn their fate - a Cup quarter-final berth after two Nigel Hunt tries helped the champions to a 24-0 victory over Wales.

POOL B

South Africa signalled their intentions to claim back to back IRB Sevens World Series titles after winning in Adelaide with an impressive opening 40-0 defeat of France, Danwel Demas and Schalk van der Merwe both scoring two tries. England then delighted the home fans with a 29-7 defeat of Spain with Tom Biggs claiming a hat-trick of tries. 

Gio Aplon claimed a hat-trick of tries in another impressive performance from South Africa against Spain in a 42-5 victory. Their biggest test of the day would come against home side England, who beat France 33-5 with Ben Foden among their try scorers.

France picked up their first win with a 31-5 defeat of Spain, a match in which Vincent Roux scored the 20,000th try in IRB Sevens history. England led South Africa 7-5 at half time in the final match, but tries from Aplon, MJ Mentz and Kabamba Floors powered the Boks to a 22-7 triumph, which avoided a quarter-final with New Zealand.

POOL C

Emosi Vucago scored two of Fiji's five tries as they got off to a winning start by beating Canada 29-5, but it was Portugal who caused the first upset of the London Sevens with their 28-12 defeat of Australia. The score had been 7-5 before three unanswered tries pulled Portugal clear.

Fiji made it two wins out of two with a 39-0 defeat of Portugal, Seremaia Burotu scoring four of their seven tries. Australia then bounced back from their surprise opening loss to Portugal with a 38-5 victory over Canada. 

Portugal let slip a 12-0 lead to two Nanyak Dala tries for Canada, but a try from Antonio Pinto claimed a 17-14 victory to inch towards the Cup quarter-finals. Fiji also led 12-0 against Australia, but tries from Scott Higginbotham and Shawn MacKay brought them to within two points at the death as Andrew Walker's touchline conversion drifted across the posts.

POOL D

Samoa's quest for their first title of the season started with a 33-10 defeat of Russia, Reupena Levasa scoring two of their five tries. A late try from Richie Vernon then made certain of a 17-5 victory for Scotland against the well-supported Kenyans.

Two tries apiece from Alafoti Fa'osiliva and Timoteo Iosua ensured the Samoans remained unbeaten with a 31-12 defeat of Scotland, before Russia showed the strides they are making by upsetting Series core side Kenya 17-7 with Evgeniy Matveev touching down for two of their three tries.

That victory meant the Scotland-Russia affair was a win or bust encounter, the Scots claiming the Cup quarter-final berth as runners up with a 31-7 victory. Roared on by their vocal supporters, Kenya tried to end day one with a win, but tries from Levasa and Uale Mai helped Samoa run out 28-10 winners.

For all the latest results, news and views on day two of the Emirates Airline London Sevens, stay tuned to irbsevens.com