England beat France in a fine Cup final 29-12 to defend their Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens title and delight the ex-pat crowd at The Sevens stadium.

In doing so they climb to second in the HSBC Sevens World Series standings, seven points behind Fiji, who won the bronze final against Argentina to maintain their impressive start to the season.

Three nations, New Zealand, France and South Africa, lie three points adrift of England with round 3 to come in Port Elizabeth next weekend.

In the other trophies, Lewis Holland scored for Australia with the last play of the Plate final to beat South Africa 17-14. Andrew Turnbull was the difference in the Bowl final, his hat trick inspiring Scotland to a 26-0 victory against USA, and Samoa defeated Kenya to lift the Shield.

"We talked about it all week coming from the Gold Coast," said England captain Greg Barden. "We had a lot of things to work on, and we wanted to stay tight as a team, and we did.