Cracknell scored two second-half tries for England against Samoa

England were beaten 28-19 by Samoa in the semi-finals of the Dubai Sevens, the first event of the 2009-10 series.

A 17-12 sudden-death quarter-final win over Argentina put Ben Ryan's team into the semis but they were undone by three Samoa tries in the first four minutes.

Nick Royle and Chris Cracknell, with two tries in the second half, scored to get them back into the game.

But Samoa held on to dash England's hopes, before the Islanders went on to lose 24-12 to New Zealand in the final.

Royle pulled a try back before the interval, and although Cracknell closed the gap just after the restart, minutes later Samoa added another to stretch out of reach.

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Afterwards, coach Ben Ryan admitted the Samoans seemed to have some sort of jinx on England.

"They are our nemesis," he said. "I hate to think teams have bogey teams because we beat them in London last season, but I hope we don't play them again in Dubai for some while because they seem to have the evil eye on us."

Earlier, Ben Gollings had been the match-winning hero against Argentina.

Having fallen behind early on, tries by Royle and Dan Norton put England on top until Argentina scored a try at the death, but crucially failed to convert.

That set up sudden-death overtime, and in the second minute Gollings scored the vital try from a 10m scrum.

New Zealand's victory in the final meant they won the Dubai tournament for the second time in three years, and it was also a day of success for Wales.

They won the Bowl competition with a resounding 38-7 win over Zimbabwe.

The Welsh beat Scotland 19-12 on their way to the final, while Zimbabwe had overcome the Arabian Gulf 28-19 to secure their final berth.

England reached the knock-out stages with comfortable wins over Kenya (27-10), Russia (28-0) and the USA (40-12) on Friday.

Wales could only finish third in their group, beating the Arabian Gulf 50-0 but losing 14-7 to Australia and 28-14 to South Africa.

Scotland finished bottom of Pool B, going down 42-7 against Fiji and 36-7 against Samoa, before drawing 17-17 with Zimbabwe.

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