NZ Sevens claim Gold Coast Title

Last night our All Blacks Sevens team wrapped up the first tournament of the 2013/2014 World series, beating Australia in the final 40-19 and claiming the Gold Coast title for the second year in a row. 

I am a huge advocate of Rugby Sevens and can happily spend hours watching the fast paced and excitement overload that is our wonderful version of the traditional game. After heading along to the Wellington series earlier this year I would happily travel the world and attend every 7's event if I could.

Our All Black 7's boys have always had a proud history and have easily been the dominate side since the shorter version's inception, and this was the perfect way to start of defending there 2012/13 World Series title.

It was quite phenomenal how well our boys did considering the team had only assembled a week prior to the tournament kicking off. They did not concede a single point until the semi finals, ruthlessly disposing of teams in there wake. 

Although in front of yet another small crowd for the second year running, the action from all teams on the field was sensational, a great example of why Sevens is continuing to grow as a sport towards its involvement at the 2015 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. At one stage it sounded as though there were more Kiwi fans in the stadium that Aussies. Guess we can thank the large number of ex pats who call Queensland home.

Sir Gordon Tijetans, a legend of the game, continues his fantastic ability to be able to bring in young and exciting players to join the old heads of Tomasi Cama, Dj Forbes and last seasons IRB Player of the Year Tim Mikkelsen. It proves a scary thought for countries aiming to compete at Rio, with some of the games previous stars indicating they would love to get back into the Sevens arena. 

The final was contested against the young Australian boys who gave us a real scare scoring the first two opening tries in the first 4 minutes of the game. After narrowly beating South Africa in the semi final with double extra time, it was always going to be a massive mountain for the Australian's to climb and eventually our boys played to the game plan and kept the ball in hand until the space opened up to exploit. 

I can hardly wait until the next tournament in Dubai next month. It certainly makes having the Rugby Channel worth every extra penny.

What did you think of our boys performance?