England battled back in Canada to defeat New Zealand yesterday to win the Langford Sevens tournament.

After trailing 14-7, England ended the first half ahead 19-14 and dominated in the second to finish the match 31-14 to lift the trophy.

“It was an awesome first half,” said captain Emily Scarratt. “There was a bit of ping-pong to start, with tries scored and conceded but the girls dug deep.

“We’ve had a good couple of weeks out here in [United States] and Canada and it’s been a really long while for an England Women’s Sevens team to get something like this in our hands and so we’re over the moon.

“We really are building. We’ve gone away and worked really hard and that was the product of it.

“We knew it would be a tough game but that if we played to our style we could win. We’re tired but we are very happy.”

Two tries from Heather Fisher, who was later named player of the final, Alice Richardson and one from Joanne Watmore capped off a tremendous tournament after beating Sevens Series leaders Australia in the semis.

Coach Simon Middleton said: “The girls put in a spectacular day of rugby. These tournaments are all about day two as we have just proved as our performances all day were sensational.

“We didn’t have a great day one but we dusted ourselves off and the girls have shown what a talented group they are and what great shape they are in.”

Heading into the final round in France on May 28, England are still third in the overall Series standings but victory in Canada as them just four points behind New Zealand’s 64, with Australia well ahead on 76.

And with under four months to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Middleton added: “We came into this double-legger [Atlanta and Langford] wanting to get certain results to progress as a squad and we got that.”