England Women better men by winning London Sevens

England Women outshone their male counterparts as they beat Australia to win the London Sevens.

The men lost 14-7 to Australia in the Cup semi-finals, but after edging past Canada, England Women eased to a 31-7 win over the Wallaroos in the final.

The London leg of the Sevens World Series at Twickenham was the last men's tournament before the Sevens World Cup in Moscow from 28-30 June.

Men's world champions Wales warmed up for their defence by winning the Bowl.

They beat France 19-7 in the final after a 21-12 victory over Samoa in the last four.

England's men have had a difficult 2013 World Series campaign and went into London in eighth place in the standings.

After topping their group they beat South Africa 19-14 in the quarter-finals and in the semis took the lead against Australia with a try from Dan Norton.

It was his 50th of the season and extended his lead at the top of the overall try-scoring charts, but a brace of tries from Australia, either side of the break, saw them into the final.

England eventually finished third after beating Kenya 26-19, with the prolific Norton scoring yet another try.

Australia went on be thrashed 47-12 in the final by New Zealand, who had already wrapped up the overall title after finishing second in the penultimate round in Glasgow last weekend.

England Women rode their luck on the way to their final of the women's event, which was not part of the IRB Women's Seven's World Series.

They lost 20-19 to Australia in their pool game on Saturday, and could have fallen at the semi-final stage on Sunday.

Joanne Watmore scored to put England 19-12 up against Canada, but the North Americans were awarded a penalty with the last play of the match.

However, with time up, rather than tap and go they kicked it into touch for a line-out and the referee blew for full-time.

In the final, England were never threatened and tries from Marlie Packer, Watmore and Katy McLean put them 21-0 up at half-time, before captain Michaela Staniford and Katherine Merchant added further tries after the break.

England now travel to Amsterdam for the final round of the women's Sevens World Series, in which they lie second, next weekend before joining the men in Moscow for the World Cup at the end of June.