 England's Nils Mordt scrambles for the ball against Hong Kong |
England launched their bid for a fourth successive IRB Hong Kong Sevens title with a 52-0 win over the hosts. Rotherham's David Strettle ran in four tries while Mathew Tait, Ben Gollings, Ben Russell and Dan Luger also crossed.
The Commonwealth Games silver medallists have further pool games against Canada and USA on Saturday.
In other matches Wales beat Portugal 17-14 while Scotland eased past Japan 33-7. Fiji crushed Madagascar 52-7 and New Zealand demolished Singapore 52-0.
Strettle was delighted with his 20-point personal tally and said: "I was pleased to score four tries on my Hong Kong debut.
"It was satisfying to keep a clean score sheet but defence often wins tournaments and we need to go back and look at the tape and get ready for the Americans and Canadians."
Last year the event in Hong Kong served as the Sevens World Cup and England were beaten by Fiji in the semi-finals.
However, England were champions for the preceding three years.
MMIX
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