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After a dramatic first leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series in Dubai, Robin Heymann assesses the form of the leading lights ahead of this weekend's second round at the SA Sevens in George.

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Robin Heymann

Although the fireworks of the Dubai Sevens razzmatazz might still be ingrained in the memory banks, the teams on the HSBC Sevens World Series must now pick themselves up for this weekend’s second leg in George. 

It’s all part of the sevens tour process as there is little time for reflection in between these back-to-back events. Physically and mentally batteries must be recharged and it is often an intriguing to see who copes best.

For some teams it provides a perfect time for quick retribution and further development. But for others, like Dubai winners England, it poses a different challenge in trying to keep that winning momentum ball rolling.

Pre-Dubai if someone had said England was going to be holding the Cup aloft on Saturday evening it perhaps wouldn’t have been a shock. The only squad to contain no debutants looked the most organised and experienced on paper.

But their victory doesn’t tell you the half of it – sevens really does make you scratch your head sometimes.
A group loss to Portugal proved the turning point for the English and we saw some clever management from coach Ben Ryan.

A siege mentality was ignited with the embarrassing loss bringing the squad closer together. They removed the shackles against Fiji in the final pool game and then against Australia (QF), New Zealand (SF) and Samoa (Final).

Beating those four on the bounce will breed huge confidence. As the day unfolded, and despite being behind in games, you just felt they held their own destiny and possessed the impetus to take out the tourney.

The Tequila Sunrise (‘tomato n egg’) reserve kit got far too much attention but it did become the symbol of their resurgence – and some decent PR for Nike!

OL-H injection

All of a sudden we saw them play an exciting brand of high tempo and patient sevens; attributes that they have lacked sometimes. Perhaps guilty of playing too much up the middle and over using the short side in previous campaigns, England played to their strengths of building a couple of phases before releasing the most exciting backline on the tour. 

Ollie Lindsey-Hague (pic right) gave the sevens boys a similar sparkling oomph that Ben Young has delivered to Martin Johnson’s 15s. Yes, he has good pace, daredevil feet and vision. But his beautiful service from half-back set the tone with crisp passing in front of his man often creating room for a superb Gollings and the two in-form Dans (Norton and Caprice).

Dubai MVP Rodwell, Damu and especially Cracknell were also immense up top giving the side required platform to express themselves. They proved to be the fittest and best conditioned side over the two days – how important could that be come this weekend?

Gutsy Samoa

Runners-up Samoa deserve huge praise also. Despite being reigning Series champs the odds were actually against them in Dubai. Similarly to last year their preparation was poor with half their side having to play on the 15s tour to Europe in the preceding weeks.

That left Stephen Betham’s side physically drained and with a lack of specific sevens conditioning that we know is vital. Big-time players such as Lolo Lui and Rupeni Levasa got injured for finals days, exposing their resources further. With Mikaele Pesamino sluggish it yet again needed herculean efforts from the triumvirate of Mikaele, Fa’osiliva and Treviranus to puncture the holes in the opposition.

Unrelenting energy and the basic pattern of cutting back in between the second and third defender bring them much reward – but England exposed them out wide.

“I am happy with the way they lifted their games, those who had to come on and start it was a good progress for us,” said Betham in the aftermath.

“Teamwork, they had to stick together when we lost our captain and one of our key players, but we stuck together and carried on."

Best of the rest?

And what of the others? New Zealand with their new-look outfit will ultimately benefit from the pain of a semi-final defeat. Frank Halai, Scott Curry and Bryce Heem all showed flashes of class and it will interesting to see how quickly they can develop this weekend. Much will be expected from Forbes, Cama, Raikabula and Mikkelson to shepherd them this season.

It was a remarkable comeback from Fiji against South Africa in the last-eight but they were (just about) outmuscled by Samoa in the semis in a titanic clash of modern-day power sevens.

The same old questions of consistency though will follow them to George. Wales and USA would have been pretty happy about their solid showings on the opening day’s play and were full value in qualifying for the Cup quarters. But what next?

“It is an attitude, you can’t just be happy you reached the quarters, you want to move beyond it,” said a frustrated USA coach Al Caravelli.

“We want to be a consistent team so we need to make sure we earn our right as a top quarter finalist before we start thinking of semis and finals.”

World Series debutant John Grant showed his class for Australia going over nine times with the giant winger making a similar impact that Victor Vito provided a couple of seasons ago. I don’t think it will take too long for Australia’s newbies to settle under such good management in coach Michael O’Connor.

Same old story for Paul Treu’s South Africa – narrowly missing out in the quarter-final stage to yes Fiji. Four times on last season’s Series the Fijians pipped the Boks by the narrowest of margins at the same stage and the habit is continuing. 19-7 with just over a minute to go and they were again robbed.

What will be pleasing for this weekend’s hosts is the fact they regrouped and beat another team that has caused them issues in the past, Australia, to win the Plate. The likes of Horne, Dazel (if fit) and their best player Cecil Afrika need to start closing out Cup quarter-finals for them though.

It’s a hugely exciting time of the season with so many early questions needing answering. But as England has shown a day’s sevens is actually a long time in this sport; swings and roundabouts and that sort of stuff.

Who will get on a roll in George? Yet again it’s tough to call. England’s superior fitness might prove the key again though.