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International Marauders and Wooden Spoon Blues were triumphant taking International Invitational and International Overseas men's titles, respectively, on the final evening of the Dubai Rugby Sevens at the weekend.

The Marauders were effectively the South Africa Vipers team, with Paul Treu’s second string just proving too strong and organised for their opponents in the final stages of the tournament. In the final they survived a late comeback to put away holders Sporting Chance Foundation (Samurai International) 33-20 to take the prestigious International Invitational title.

A slack 4 minute spell immediately after half time allowed the Marauders team to score 12 points that Sporting Chance, making their third consecutive appearance in the finals, could not pull back.

The semi-finals of the Invitational event were, on the contrary, close affairs with Sporting Chance beating the supremely fit New Zealand Legends 17-12 and the Marauders getting past HFW Wailers 29-17.

Paul Treu’s side included the likes of Renfred Dazel and Marius Schoeman both important men for Treu in last season’s overall IRB Sevens World Series win. They had also warmed up for the event by reachin the exhibition final in Sri Lanka the week before.

The Sporting Chance invitation team that included players from 5 different countries and gave youngsters like Scott Curry (NZ) Gavin Dacey (Wales) and Jamie Hearn & Ollie Lindsay'Hague (England) some good game time and had experience through Tim Walsh (Australia).

In the earlier stages of the competition Sporting Chance were pushed hard by Adam Hurst’s Apache but enjoyed a rout of the Templars in the 1/4 final, 46-7. The Marauders could only manage a 21-21 draw with the NZ Legends in the pool stages and were also pushed hard by Namibia in the last eight before winning through 19-12.
Wooden Spoon Blues had to survive a few anxious moments before beating Pyrenees 7s 19-15 for the Overseas honours.

In the Overseas final, it was the men from Pyrenees in south-west France who took the lead with an early try. Wooden Spoon bounced back strongly with two tries and were leading 12-5 at halftime. Back after the break, they made it 19-5 and with the minutes ticking away, it looked like being the end for the Pyrenees 7s.
However, the latter rallied back and were only a try away from squaring things when the buzzer went off.

Earlier, the last four clashes in the Overseas section were more of a one-way traffic with the eventual winners beating Navy Sharks 31-12 and the Pyrenees 7s ending the gallant run of Moscow Region 22-7.

Two more Russian sides, Yug and Spartac, took the International and Overseas Plate titles respectively.