The Cook Islands will run out at the Westpac Stadium on 3-4 February this weekend, in the knowledge that this is their one and only chance to shine on the 2011/12 HSBC Sevens World Series.

The Cook Islands secured their place at this year's Hertz Sevens at the fourth edition of the Oceania Sevens in October last year, a tournament which saw non-core teams qualify for tournaments on the 2011/12 Series.

Tonga will participate in both Wellington this weekend and Hong Kong in March by virtue of making the semi-finals whilst the Cook Islands, who came 5th, return to the New Zealand capital for the 12th time.... more »

It's been quite a week in the world of international sevens; England retained their Dubai 7s title, this reporter joined the 'twitterverse' and the World Sevens Series circus arrived in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Much has been made of Englands victory last weekend in the desert and I give Ben Ryan and his troops their due, they were the best side in the tournament last weekend. In last weeks preview article on the Dubai 7s I gave England a mulligan for their performance on the Gold Coast, you could see what they were trying to do in Australia but things didn't quite click. They faced some of the same issues on day one in Dubai but they stuck to their guns and the 2nd half performance against France at the end of the day gave them confidence going into the quarter-final against New Zealand and the rest as they say is history.

Looking forward to this weekend and their are many questions but staying with England briefly, can they go back to back?... more »