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Sevens legend Ben Gollings is urging England to make sure they build on their “sensational” victory in Dubai at this weekend's George Sevens in South Africa.

Gollings’s side were on the brink of going out of the tournament after a defeat against Portugal on the first day but came from behind in four successive games to beat Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and Samoa.

They trailed 21-12 to the Samoans in the tournament final before tries from Simon Hunt, Dan Norton and Mathew Turner snatched the title in the closing minutes.

“The boys have been sensational and you can’t ask for any more from them. It was always going to take one win to help us realise our true potential and hopefully we can really roll on from here,” Gollings said.

“I’ve experienced plenty of highs and lows in my career but we really had to look hard at ourselves pretty seriously after the performance against Portugal but at the end of the day the boys did what you have to do in this game and that’s to bounce back positively and make amends.

“We’ve got to stay level headed and we’ve set a platform and set a standard and it’s now not right if we don’t meet that standard.

Gollings extended his world record sevens points tally to 2,418 after contributing four tries and 12 conversions to the cause but highlighted the role played by England’s four youngest players.

“There’s still a lot of work to do but the guys were sensational and the young guys really stepped up: Ollie Lindsay-Hague was brilliant, Dan Caprice brilliant, Dan Norton brilliant, Mat Turner brilliant when he came on, everyone played massive parts.”

Head coach Ben Ryan is working with a group full-time sevens players this season and the continuity of selection and extended training time paid off once they got into their stride.

As well as leading try-scorer Lindsay-Hague (Harlequins), he highlighted the role of hard-working forward Chris Cracknell in the last four games.

“We can fight with the best of them and the boys proved that. We were relaxed and we were ruthless and it’s a good combination and they managed to hang on to that.

“Ollie Lindsay-Hague was brilliant, wasn’t he? He made a big difference as did Chris Cracknell who was a rock and made some really good decisions. We’ve got some talented youngsters back home and Ollie played with the real exuberance of youth. I wish I could bottle it!

“But we’ve got to remain pretty humble. We’ve won one tournament at the beginning of the year but everyone will regroup and try and have a crack at us now. The proof will be in how we run out in George next weekend.”

Birmingham and Solihull wing Hunt scored the last-play try against Fiji that sent England into the quarter finals, then came off the bench to batter his way over in the final when England were trailing.

“It makes it worth it. All the fitness tests, the rolling around in the dirt, in all the wind and the rain, and putting the hard yards in is all worthwhile when you win," said Simon Hunt.

“Life didn’t seem so pretty five minutes after Portugal but if we are going to win the series we’ll have ups and downs and it’s about how we deal with that. We’ve done superbly here.”