Australia's novice rugby sevens team stunned arch rivals England with a 21-17 opening match victory in Adelaide.

A Shaun Foley try with about 20 seconds remaining secured the win for the hosts on the opening night of the International Rugby Sevens tournament at Adelaide Oval.

Foley was brilliantly set up to cross for the match winner by a daring run from Richard Kingi, who took on three Englishmen and passed to his compatriot while tumbling to the ground.

The win was a massive upset, with England entering the Adelaide tournament in second place overall and the Australians languishing in ninth.

But the home nation raced to a 14-0 advantage within four minutes courtesy of tries to Dominic Shipperley and Luke Morahan.

England struck back with the next three tries, with Ollie Phillips crossing for two - his last putting the Englishmen in front 17-14.

But Australia responded with Kingi's telling run neatly completed by Foley to secure a win hailed by coach Michael O'Connor.

"I am very satisfied, finally we have beaten one of the top nations," O'Connor said.

"I was really pleased with our boys, just the way they showed a lot of fortitude in coming back right at the end - we have lost tight games like that before, it's nice to win one."

In other matches, South Africa entrenched their standing as overall pacesetters by defeating Cook Islands 28-7 and New Zealand initially struggled for cohesion before eclipsing Wales 24-10.

Fiji comfortably dispatched Scotland 33-7 while the United States upset Tonga 15-14.

Kenya defeated Japan 12-5, Argentina prevailed over France 14-7 and Samoa beat Portugal 26-5.

Australia plays Samoa and Portugal as the pool matches continue on Saturday, ahead of the finals on Sunday.

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