Sevens explosion: RWC Sevens history Part 2
By Nigel Starmer-Smith
In part two of his Rugby World Cup Sevens history, TV commentator Nigel Starmer-Smith reflects on the third and fourth events in Argentina and Hong Kong, a period when the global IRB Sevens World Series was launched.
From Hong Kong to Mar del Plata, Argentina was the venue for staging RWC Sevens number three, but not before the IRB chairman, the late Vernon Pugh, had decided that Sevens held the key to rugby's Olympic dreams. So it was that the IRB embarked upon the 'Magnificent Sevens', the annual Sevens World Series that this year celebrates its 10th anniversary.
The World Series is a story for another day, an event that began in December 1999, appropriately in Dubai. A brilliant concept that guarantees at least five matches for every competing nation in a two-day, four-tier competition, it mixes the giants of the game with the emerging nations and has proved an extraordinary success.
Needless to say, the Sevens World Series seasons were to have a dramatic impact on future RWC Sevens tournaments. By 2001 the game was moving into another dimension. Player specialisation advanced, certain skills and tactics were becoming unique to the Sevens code, and the emphasis and player attributes different.
New Zealand understood the value of Sevens and for Fiji it was their national sport. These two ruled the roost, although the playing standards of the emerging nations were being pulled upwards with them all the time.
2001 - Mar del Plata
In Mar del Plata, Jonah Lomu was back - with a vengeance. Alongside him, captain Eric Rush, now 36, and a determined Cup-hunting squad with Tenana, de Goldi, Seymour and Amasio Valence. Fiji had captain Serevi, with Delasau and the Satala cousins. The four pools of six included newcomers Kenya, and Russia, Chinese Taipei, Georgia and Chile. New Zealand were coasting, conceding only two tries in their pool rounds but in the last one, against England, they lost captain Rush with a broken leg.
It seemed his return to Auckland, and hospital, provided that extra bit of motivation as other nations made their mark. Spain beat England, Portugal drew with Wales, Argentina beat Ireland and the Cook Islands beat France. But the real surprise was the fragility of joint favourites, reigning World champions Fiji, who were knocked off their pedestal by a re-invigorated Australia, for whom the new star was winger Ian Williams. He had already destroyed England in the quarter final with four tries in a 33-5 win and produced a brilliant score that inspired his team in victory over Fiji, 22-14.
But New Zealand were focused, with Tietjens in charge, Tenana the replacement captain and Mils Muliaina, Brad Fleming, Rodney So'oialo Craig Newby - and Lomu - on hand. Underplayed in the early rounds, it was as though Jonah had been kept in reserve for the crunch matches, and in particular, for the final against Australia. He took matters into his own hands from the first whistle to score with his first touch of the ball after just one minute, an unstoppable man mountain over 70 yards. Two more tries - he was simply an irresistible force - and the match was done, 31-12, and New Zealand had finally claimed the one elusive prize. As Jonah remarked at the end: "We did it heart and soul for Rushie and the whole of New Zealand." As for the final, a jubilant Tietjens quipped: "That was just about Jonah versus Australia."
With England hamstrung by club and country wrangles, Wales, France and Ireland failing to make the last 16, and Scotland and Italy not even qualifying for the event, Pugh reflected: "It's about time the leading European nations took Sevens more seriously."
2005 - back to the mythical home Hong Kong
So to the return to a favourite haunt and Sevens home, Hong Kong, in March 2005. In the intervening years there had been further expansion and new powers in the Sevens game as the clamour grew for participation from across the globe, with more than 50 participants in 2002-03. Australia, under Richard Graham, won three tournaments in 2002 and then England came of age at last under the brilliant direction of Joe Lydon, winning for the first time the 'blue riband' event of Hong Kong that same season, and then won there three years off the reel.
New specialists emerged, none finer than in the England squad of those years, the diminutive but dynamic duo of Simon Amor and Ben Gollings. Argentina stepped up to the top table with the Gomez Cora brothers, winning their first title in Los Angeles in 2004. But New Zealand kept just ahead of the chasing pack as Fiji slipped back in the rankings, hampered by the unavailability of their overseas players and coaching uncertainties. With the prospects for success more wide open than ever, the 2005 tournament was to prove the greatest of them all.
Eighty-two nations entered the extended qualifying rounds, with Uruguay and Tunisia through for the first time. Tickets for the finals became gold dust and television coverage was beamed to more than 100 countries, most of it live.
New Zealand, having won the overall crown for all five seasons of the IRB Sevens World Series and also the three tournaments - at George, Wellington and Los Angeles - prior to the World Cup, were clear favourites to win again. Fiji, by contrast, were out of sorts, temperamental and under pressure from home for long-awaited success (their last tournament title had been in George in 2002) and Serevi was now 37.
There was Samoa, three times finalists but yet to win a title; Argentina, with that one success, but few signs of a repeat; and South Africa, a more hopeful prospect with recent wins in Singapore and Dubai. As for England, they were back to their favourite venue, had Mike Friday continuing the good work of Lydon, and were by now a well-honed specialist outfit, with Amor and Gollings supported by Rob Thirlby, Geoff Appleford, Henry Paul, Tony Roques, Phil Dowson, Pat Sanderson, Ugo Monye, Richard Haughton, Peter Richards and Neil Starling. All in all, England's best-ever line-up.
But maybe it was all pre-ordained, for few could have scripted this fairytale better as the final tribute to the greatest Sevens player of all time. In the wake of repeated failures, Fiji had finally, after protracted domestic conflicts, brought in Wayne Pivac as coach, and he promptly recalled Serevi to run the show with him and recall the lost talent of former Sevens stars playing abroad. The line-up was mighty as Bobo, the two Satalas and Delasau joined Vunibaka, Roko, Nanuku, Rawaqa, and Daunivucu - and a virtual unknown 22-year-old William Ryder, a player destined to bewitch, bedazzle and bemuse opponents and crowds the world over from this debut to his all-too-soon departure from the scene just two years later.
Thrilling Hong Kong climax
All the usual suspects made it to the quarter finals but not before Tunisia had beaten South Africa, even with their whirlwind duo of Stefan Basson and the brilliant Fabien Juries, and France had beaten England, while Tonga came close to an all-time upset, getting to within one score of New Zealand. New stars were unveiled: Wang Kuo Feng of Chinese Taipei, Lucas Onyango of Kenya, Tevita Tu'ifua of Tonga and Wallaby Nick Reily. And older men, such as Canada's Marco di Girolamo, Australia's Tim Clark and Samoa's David Lemi, were able to shine one last time.
New Zealand, under their new captain, 20-year-old Liam Messam - what a talent - were first through to a semi final, a trans-Tasman affair with Australia. What a contest. Down to the wire, four tries apiece in an amazing Australian comeback, but 24-20 to New Zealand in the end. The other semi was equally monumental and captivating, with an Amor try in the last second to level the scores 21-21 and bring a Gollings conversion attempt from the touchline that could win it.
It shaved the post the wrong side, to bring sudden-death extra-time and an unforgettable moment of sporting drama as two of Sevens' greatest performers pitched into a decisive long chase to the corner, head to head, Serevi casting off his years to pip defender Gollings to score the try that put Fiji into the final against New Zealand.
The quality of performance did not ebb with the meeting of the two previous Cup winners. New Zealand were magnificent in their title defence but not even the wiles of Amasio Valence (Valence Raoma as he now was), the tireless Liam Messam, Josh Blackie and Lifeimi Mafi, nor the attacking skills of Rudi Wulf and Tanerau Latimer could tame the inspired Fijians.
Here, in the limelight, on his favourite stage was the eternal master of Sevens, Waisale Serevi, brushing away the years and, as ever, no doubt drawing down help and inspiration from above as he had so often done since he first appeared in Hong Kong some 16 years before. In a stunning display, tries by Daunivucu, Serevi himself, Naevo, Apolosi Satala and Bobo to one by Blackie put the South Sea Islanders into an unassailable position - almost.
The black backlash was as inevitable as it was devastating as youngsters Toeava and Wulf ripped through the wilting defence. Two tries, but too late at 29-19 as the crowd stood at the final whistle to honour two magnificent teams at the end of the greatest tournament.
Back in the South Pacific, the week-long party was soon in full swing and as Serevi hoisted the Cup, in the hands of his young son, most people surmised that he would not be going home by plane or boat; he'd simply walk there.
How swiftly the years have passed since then as we sit at this next World Cup, not one but two in fact, with the 24-team men's event to be played alongside the first women's edition, with 16 finalists at this fabulous new stadium in Dubai, The Sevens.
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