West Indies, assisted by Bermuda's quartet of Bobby Hurdle, Jon Cassidy and Josh and Danny McGavern, reached the semi-finals of the Bowl competition at the World Rugby Sevens Series in Chile.

After losing their opening group games to Fiji and Samoa convincingly, West Indies saw off their Chilean hosts on Friday night in Santiago.

The victory gave them a top seeding in the Bowl competition and saw them pitted against Uruguay on Saturday.

In a close quarter-final match the Caribbean side defeated the Uruguayans 24-19.

Victory meant a semi-final confrontation against Canada, a big ask for the fledgling side but they acquitted themselves well in defeat, losing out 24-10.

Peter Borland, Bermuda-based president of the West Indies Rugby Union, said it was a great achievement for the side.

"As president of the West Indies Rugby Union I am absolutely delighted at the results," he said, adding the side had built on their performances at last year's Hong Kong Sevens tournament.

"The nucleus of the side is still the same - Danny McGavern, Bobby Hurdle and a couple of boys from Trinidad and Jamaica. But they have also utilised a couple of the UK-based West Indian players who are playing at a higher standard. That obviously has a great impact."

Meanwhile, New Zealand defeated Argentina 21-7 in an all Southern Hemisphere final to claim their second title in the World Sevens Series.

But the victory was spoiled by an incident in the semi-final against Fiji when armed police had to separate brawling players from the two teams.

The Kiwis, undefeated throughout the two-day tournament, had to hold off a late charge by the Fijians in the semi-final, managing to scrape in 19-17 against a vastly improved side to advance to the final.

It had seemed as if the Kiwis were cruising to an easy win in the semi-final, but the Fijians scored a late try to close the gap to just two points.

In the movement that lead to that try, New Zealand's Amasio Valence was involved in a late tackle on Fijian star Waisale Sarevi and as the final whistle blew the Fijians vented their anger and an all-out brawl ensued.

New Zealand now lead the World Series standings comfortably after two tournament victories and have 40 points. South Africa, after their second consecutive loss in the semis, move into second place on 24 points. Samoa and the ever improving Argentina share third place with 20 points.

Fiji, after their dismal showing in the first round in Durban, are now fifth in the standings with 18 points, followed by England on 15. Australia, second behind New Zealand in the 2000/2001 World Series, were again disappointing and are seventh with just 10 points.