Australia survived an early scare before pulling away to a 45-12 win over China in their opening match of the Hong Kong rugby sevens on Friday.

Jin Ye and Li Yang gave the locals some excitment after taking China into an unlikely 12-7 lead before Australia took control and piled on 38 points without reply.

"China played particularly well and put on the pressure," Australia coach Michael O'Connor said.

"They scored a couple of good tries."

Tournament big guns Samoa overwhelmed Italy 40-12 as fellow favourites New Zealand and Fiji also crushed weaker opposition to get off to convincing starts.

England dismissed hosts Hong Kong 45-0 in a clinical demonstration while Kenya ran in 51-7 winners against Korea.

Other matches in the day were much closer with Argentina, France and the USA edging Russia, Scotland and Portugal respectively by just a single try.

Elsewhere, Canada beat Tonga 12-10 in the first of the day's two closest and lowest-scoring contests while Wales defeated Japan by the same scoreline.

The day's finale, an all-African affair was an altogether more entertaining showpiece, with South Africa seeing off Zimbabwe 28-10.

Hong Kong is the sixth stop on the eight-leg Sevens World Series with further events to come in England and Scotland.

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