Ireland are through to tomorrow's semi-finals of the World Rugby Sevens Series qualifier in Hong Kong ©World Rugby

Ireland’s men will play Japan tomorrow at the Hong Kong stadium for a place in the final of the World Rugby Sevens Series qualifying tournament - with promotion to next season’s World Sevens Series on offer for the winner.

The Irish beat Zimbabwe 38-5 in the quarter-final of an event being run alongside the Hong Kong Sevens tournament, part of the HSBC World Sevens Series, where defending champions Fiji and South Africa were the only teams to complete the pool stages with three wins from three today.

Japan earned their semi-final place with a 26-19 win over Uruguay.

The other semi-final on the concluding day of action will see Germany, 26-0 winners over Uganda, face Chile, who defeated the host nation 24-12.

Looking ahead to his team’s meeting with Japan, Ireland coach Anthony Eddy commented: "They’re a good side.

"They’ve got World ]Sevens] Series experience as well so we’ll have to be on our game tomorrow morning to compete against them."

Yesterday, China’s women secured their place in next season’s Women’s Sevens Series by defeating South Africa 31-14 in their qualifier final.

In today’s main World Sevens Series competition, Spain booked their spot in the Cup quarter-finals for only the second time in their history as a decisive try by Pol Pla earned them a 17-12 win over Canada.

That saw them finish second in Pool B behind Kenya - who had done enough in earlier matches, despite losing their final pool match 28-26 to Australia today - and a quarter-final match against South Africa tomorrow morning.

Spain have reached the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Sevens for only the second time in their history ©World Rugby
Spain have reached the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Sevens for only the second time in their history ©World Rugby

"We are working well," said Spain captain Francisco Hernandez.

"The Pool was very tough for us but to get into the Cup quarter-finals during the season makes us very happy."

Kenya meanwhile will face Scotland, who took the second qualifying place in Pool C when South Africa beat England 26-15 in the final match.

The United States, who topped Pool D after a concluding 31-17 win over Argentina, meet New Zealand, while Argentina now face Fiji, chasing their fourth consecutive tournament win in Hong Kong.

Fiji topped Pool A in style scoring 117 points during their three encounters.

After a day one 31-12 result over Samoa, they put six tries on the board against Russia at the start of today’s play.

Semi Kunatani scored a hat-trick during the match to set up a Pool decider with New Zealand to finish the day’s action.

A young All Blacks Sevens side had earned a six-try victory over Russia earlier in the day and a tighter 19-12 win against Samoa had followed.

But Fiji were a challenge too far, and ran out 50-7 winners.