Rugby Union: Pears misses all the fun as little England have the final say: Barrie Fairall reports from the Harlequins Sevens on a successful national show

IT WAS meant to be fun, but the 25th Harlequins Sevens were not so funny for David Pears. While England went on to win the tournament at The Stoop yesterday, poor Pears was taken to hospital with what appeared initially to be a serious neck injury after a collision in the side's first match of the afternoon.

The good news was that the Harlequin, who had to be X-rayed twice, was later released from the West Middlesex hospital suffering from no more worrying injury than contusion and strained ligaments. England, meanwhile, survived without him even though they suffered an embarrassing defeat by Cardiff in their penultimate match.

England have landed in Sevens heaven only once before and that was when they triumphed in Scotland's centenary bash at Murrayfield in the mid-Seventies. In general, Muhammad has refused going to the mountain, which means taking part in a competition of Hong Kong's stature.

They did once, however, participate in a world event in Sydney under the laid-back leadership of Andy Ripley and, having plunged in, they failed to emerge from their pool after losing to Spain.

Now the mountain is coming to Muhammad - or at least to Murrayfield again - for next April's World Sevens, which accounts for all the recent feverish activity from a national point of view. The previous weekend, for example, England took themselves off to the Selkirk tournament, only to lose out in their quarter-final to Gala, the eventual winners.

But things are perking up and they needed to after yesterday's grim start, when Pears lay prone on the pitch in the game with Zebre, the Italian side. He was attended to by a doctor, who immediately applied a surgical collar; an ambulance was then called to the scene to take the player away. This added to a growing list of England injuries that ruled out Will Carling (groin) and Jeremy Guscott (shoulder), among others, from participating here.

England, however, beat Zebre and the Lord's Taverners on a gloomy afternoon weatherwise which did nothing to hide the blushes when Cardiff won 21-17. The tournament, which may be in its last season, is run on a pool rather than a knock-out basis, and England went through to the final on a try count to meet and beat Newport, the holders, 38-14.

Even then there was an element of farce, Paul Greenwood ruled out from taking the injured captain Dewi Morris's place because he had already played for Richmond.

In the event, England got their act together and none more so than Nick Beal, Northampton's 21-year-old recruit from High Wycombe. He had an excellent run and scored two tries against Newport to finish with a total of 41 points from his four outings.

FINAL DETAILS: England: Tries Beal 2, Underwood 3, Cassell. Conversions Beal 4.

Newport: Tries McCracken 2, Conversions Westwood 2.

England: T Underwood (Leicester) J Cassell (Saracens), N Beal (Northampton), D Hopley (Wasps); A Snow (Harlequins), C Sheasby (Harlequins, captain), B Clarke (Bath).

Newport: A Lewis, J Westwood, M Boys, K Lee (captain, M Yendle, 8); A Carter, K Withey, S McCracken.

Referee: K Rickett (London Society).