Noon's try sparked a scoring deluge

With the seeding for Sunday's quarter-finals dependant upon the rankings in pool play, England wasted little time in running up a big total.

Jamie Noon opened the scoring in the first minute after early pressure on the Singapore defence and Henry Paul converted to set England on their way.

Rotherham's Rob Thirlby produced a delicately judged kick-and-chase to inspire England's second try before Geoff Appleford of London Irish added a third.

Thirlby and Falcons' Jamie Noon scored further tries before the break as England built a 33-0 lead.

FRIDAY'S RESULTS Pool A: New Zealand 38-3 Malaysia Namibia 35-10 USA Pool B: England 52-0 Singapore Tonga 26-17 Taiwan Pool C: Fiji 33-5 Russia Canada 24-12 Japan Pool D: Australia 40-7 China Kenya 15-10 Hong Kong Pool E: South Africa 54-0 Sri Lanka Scotland 28-12 South Korea Pool F: Samoa 41-7 Holland Wales 10-10 Cook Islands

The defending champions' scoring rate was reduced slightly in the second half when Northampton's John Howard received a yellow card and was sin-binned.

Appleford, Richard Haughton and Matt Cannon added further scores to complete the Pool B rout.

New Zealand launched their campaign with a 38-3 victory over Malaysia in Pool A while Fiji were made to work before beating Russia 33-5 in a hard-fought Pool C game.

Fiji, aiming for their first Hong Kong title since 1999, were given a fright when minnows Russia stormed into a 5-0 lead.

But the South Pacific islanders, playing without veteran maestro Waisale Serevi, recovered to pull clear comfortably with five unanswered tries.

In other matches on Friday, Australia defeated China 40-7 in Pool D.

Scotland opened their account with a tough 28-12 victory over South Korea in Pool E.

Mark Lee and Malcolm Clapperton got Scotland back into the game after an early try from Korea's Park Chang-Min.

Sean Lamont then grabbed a brace of tries, both from Korean mistakes, to keep the Scots safely in front.