It will probably never get repeated but three HSBC World Series tournaments in three successive weekends, in three different continents, was testing to say the least.

Things like time zone changes, climatic pressure and long-haul travel are all part of the normal routine on the international sevens circuit. On top of this we had to walk the fine line between keeping on top of everything on the field in terms of training and conditioning but also ensuring enough mental and physical rest for everyone.

So, how did we think we fared? You can see the results and where we are in the table but are we happy with where we are going?

In most areas, I’d say we are delighted. Although we lost three players to injury in Port Elizabeth, none were significant and everyone should be fit for selection for the NZI Sevens in Wellington in February, our next destination.

Before the trip, I set two goals.

First, make sure by the end of the month we are there around the top of the table fighting for first spot. Only four points between the top four sides shows it’s going to be the most competitive series for years and we are one good result away from topping the pile with a long way to go.

Secondly, we wanted to win one of the opening tournaments. We did so in Dubai the hard way in reaching the final playing very well, beating two big rivals in Fiji and New Zealand and tactically getting it spot on.

It makes a significant difference to have players in your squad who have won tournaments. It breeds confidence and belief and perhaps more importantly, it feeds the desire to keep winning.

However, there were a few fish that did get away. Our loss to New Zealand in Port Elizabeth was hard to take. The Kiwis did exactly what we had done in Dubai a week earlier, bouncing back to win all six games and claim the next title.

Of course they are a good side and Gordon Tietjens made sure everyone was on the same page for the Port  Elizabeth tournament as you know he always will.

The competition between the two sides is intense and the games are always close. They have a formula against us that often gives them the upper hand and we think we have a way of playing them that also brings success so it’s a fascinating duel between the two teams.

I expect their squad to be considerably bolstered for Wellington so it’s going to be a great ding-dong for the season ahead.

The 12 core teams travel the world together which does foster a lot of relationships between sides but the competition and rivalry keeps most of that at arms length as everyone looks towards a winning programme.

Lots of our routines are the same. Fairly early starts and swim sessions seems uniform across the board and pre-match prep seems pretty similar. The differences occur in how we prepare the team physically, the style of play and the analysis.

On top of that a lot of countries now have full-time programmes. After our European adventure in the summer, it was good to see France and Wales play so well and show there isn’t an Oceania stranglehold on the game. Scotland were easily the unluckiest side not to hit the quarter finals and while we might not be quite brothers in arms politically with the rest of the continent, in sevens at least there was a collective feeling amongst us that  European Sevens is on a sharp rise.

Another continued work-on for us is our own style. Defensively we certainly had the most aggressive system in place and the games against Fiji showed what happens when you get your defence spot-on. That was really pleasing and it allows us to build on this in the coming weeks.

It also meant in attack it freed up some of our key players and you saw Isoa Damudamu, Dan Norton and Mat Turner in particular take advantage of that. Yet we still want more from our attack and there are still big work-ons to get to a level where we can unlock anyone at any time.

The technical things we are doing in training are really testing the players to reach new levels in game understanding and some are still very alien to them. It’s a bit of a crusade for me to continue to work on this and get them playing a style that really will add to what we are doing and not to worry about losing key players to injury as invariably will happen.

I’d say we are 50 per cent of the way there and most of it centres around the players getting more comfortable with altering the tempo we play at. It will eventually permeate through to our game and that’s another reason to get very excited about what is happening with England Sevens.

Make no bones about it. We were at a distinct disadvantage travel-wise compared with the other sides in the top four and while we didn’t get things 100 per cent right, it has been a great month.

The sevens game is undoubtedly the fastest moving international sport in the world off and on the field and we can proudly say we are one of the leading lights. The goal, though, is to be much more than that and after a couple of weeks off for the team, we will return to work harder than we ever have. Thanks for all the tremendous support. Come on England!

WELL, it certainly wasn’t a short trip across to Port Elizabeth! An early rise on Sunday led to all the teams enduring 17 hours of travel to get to our final resting point in the Eastern Cape.

For us, it was a little more forgiving as we had a bit of a spring in our step. Our win in Dubai has been well documented and needless to say I was very proud of the lads and their application to the cause all weekend.

We had the best defence in the tournament and scored 25 very good tries which all combined to make sure we successfully defended the title we won dramatically last year.  Although I would have liked us to have taken more of our chances in the New Zealand quarter final, the win there gave us some good momentum and our performances became more assured after that.

Considering this was after a trip to Australia seven days earlier plus the tournament last weekend – the team were physically in great shape.

We broke a few of our ‘speed’ records, measured on our in game GPS. Mat Turner was clocked at 38kmh and our wingers all hit over 35kmh consistently. On top of this, our collective average speeds for the games were over 30kmh. In layman’s terms that’s fast! It’s also brilliant from a speed endurance point of view and Brett Davison, who oversees our conditioning, has got them in top shape to play the way we want.

However, it was the style the lads are beginning to play that gave us the win. Our tackle completion rates were great and really left the opposition with few chances. We conceded 48 points less than we did in winning Dubai last year. As one of work-ons from last season that was especially pleasing. The attack is also starting to gel as we want and the back-line really fired this weekend to back up the titanic work the forwards are doing.

Enough of patting ourselves on the back though – we all know we can play better and we also know we need to be a consistently winning side.

As I have mentioned, our style is evolving and by no means anywhere near the finished product yet. When you truly can see an England Sevens ‘style’ emerge then we will be part of the way there and there is still a lot going on in training that hasn’t managed to make its way into tournaments yet.

Twinned with so many sides getting better, it’s a hugely competitive HSBC Sevens World Series this year. I loved some of the French attacking play and Fiji also played some sublime stuff so we know there is a lot of work to do.

This week in Port Elizabeth has been all about getting the squad’s energy back up to perform to the same levels as last week. Tournaments take a huge toll on the body and with our third in as many weeks and the enormous amount of travel we have had, it really will be a case of having the mental and physical durability to finish this month away on top form.

By the end of this trip we will have clocked up over 50km in training, over a dozen swim sessions and around eight weights sessions as well as 18 games covering around 40km. That is phenomenal and I’m sure all the sides have similar statistics.

So, sure, we are all looking to having Christmas back at home and a well-earned rest. But before that the only thing on any of our minds this weekend will be to continue our ascent on the field and work our socks off in what is a very, very hard group with Argentina, Samoa and the USA on Friday. Come on England!

You can follow Ben Ryan and the England Sevens team on twitter @benjaminryan

On Friday the HSBC World Series starts up again. Normally we are winging our way to Dubai for the opening leg but this time it’s all the way across the globe to the Gold Coast in Australia.

That, in itself, has made the start harder as we go from there to Dubai and finally Port Elizabeth; three tournaments on the bounce, countless time zones and fair bit of jet lag to deal with. I doubt any international side has had that much travel combined with that much intense competition in four weeks but that’s the challenge all the European sides face in the opening three legs.

This England group has worked really hard to get fit, healthy and robust enough to not only survive but be successful this year in the 54 games we will play in the nine tournaments. There have been some big changes in the players’ diets, sacrifices in their social and personal lives, and generally the bar has been raised.

The same though, is the case all around the world as countries begin to mass before the race to Olympic glory. It’s amazing to see the change in all the teams and sevens is truly unrecognisable from five years ago.

Only a couple of years ago, being the fittest team in the world would have given you a significant edge. Now, everyone understands that this underpins performance and they pretty much do whatever it takes to be fit for purpose.

Performance Analysis has also increased. Teams have dossiers of your players’ strengths and weaknesses and they often centre game-plans around it. But the style of most of the teams hasn’t varied too much in the last few seasons. I won’t bore you with explaining how various sides approach the game but bar a few penalty and set-piece moves and kick-off variations, most teams have a DNA that’s relatively identifiable.

This area of our game has seen the most amount of change this year. In fact, it’s been through a complete overhaul. While retaining our desire to offload and keep well away from multi-phase, multi-ruck attacks, the framework and style is totally different.

The onus for us is having a way of playing that suits the type of players we want in our system; this style, our DNA, is simple but stretches the players skill-sets and decision making.

Why the change? England is into the second year of sevens contracts with 12 full-time players on our books. Now we have more contact time, we can really get to grips with how we want to play and approach sevens.

Often when a team becomes full time the obvious plan of attack for is to thicken their playbook – more time, more organisation and more structure. For us, we have concentrated on our skills and decision-making and threaded all that into the framework for attack and defence.

The onus is put firmly on the players to make decisions and for the framework to offer support and options for them. We want players that have great game understanding to come through our system, not neglect it with the crutch of overly structured moves.

It’s not something that will click overnight, we will need some patience but the potential is really exciting this season.

The one thing I do know will appear immediately is the team’s single-mindedness. I’m very grateful to have a group of players that all feel very fortunate to play for their country.

They give every ounce to the cause from the first to final blow of the whistle and will defend and attack for all they are worth. I can’t ask any more and yet again, as another season looms closer, I’m more excited than ever to lead this group.

Head coach Ben Ryan’s side lead the way going into tomorrow’s Cathay Pacific Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens, level on 80 points with New Zealand at the top of the table.

Perform well in Hong Kong and Adelaide the following week, and England will have an advantage when the series arrives in Europe for the Emirates Airline London and Edinburgh tournaments.

Top seeds England face China on Friday, March 25 (09.58 GMT) then take on remaining Pool B opponents Japan (06.10) and the USA (10.34). Six pool winners and the two best runners-up go into Sunday’s cup quarter finals.

More teams compete in Hong Kong than at other tournaments, meaning 30 rather than 24 series points are available for the winners.

“Because of the extra points, the momentum and the confidence you get it’s such an important tournament for whoever wins it,” said Ryan. “We know we can have a minimum five-point lead on New Zealand if we win.

“The way the draw looks, if everyone wins we wouldn’t get to play New Zealand until the final but we can’t take anything for granted. We’ve got a pretty tricky route out of the pool and past series champions Samoa or South Africa, who won the last tournament.

“We’re certainly in a very good position and it puts an added pressure on players because we have to keep delivering as we are starting to run out of runway now.”

Hong Kong’s unique schedule sees England face Pool B opponents China on Friday (09.58 GMT) before taking on Japan (06.10) and the USA (10.34) on Saturday. Topping the group would put England into a cup quarter final against the best of the six group runners-up early on Sunday morning.

“It’s an emotional pool now because of all the horrendous things that have happened in Japan,” said Ryan.

“We have a close affinity with them on and off the field. We feel very sorry for them and they must be going through a huge amount of turmoil.

“We have China on the Friday night and they’re almost the home team so they’ll go all guns blazing to have a crack at us. The Americans are a decent side and will certainly come up with a plan to negate our strengths. We’ve just got to be on the ball. Being clinical and professional is the key to our group.

“We’ve changed things and we’ll have some surprises for the other sides in Hong Kong and they won’t expect some of the things we’re going to do – that’s one of the benefits of being full time. We’ll continue to change things game by game so that people can’t get the upper hand on analysis.”

There is only one change in personnel, though, with Ollie Lindsay-Hague (Harlequins) returning from injury in place Simon Hunt (Birmingham & Solihull), while experienced forward Greg Barden (Royal Navy) and rookie Mark Odejobi (Esher & Brunel University) play in Hong Kong for the first time.

Lindsay-Hague warmed up with Aviva Premiership outings on the wing for Harlequins and is eager to recapture the form that saw him finish as England’s leading try scorer at the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens at the start of the series.

“Dubai was one of the biggest highs of the season and it was going really well for me before I was injured in South Africa,” said Lindsay-Hague.

“I chipped bones in my foot and sprained an important ligament. I had to be really careful with it and was out for two and a half months.

“Hong Kong last year was my first major tournament and I played every minute. The atmosphere’s incredible, last year will help me and I won’t be as nervous.”

Odejobi was an IRB Junior World Championship finalist on the wing for England U20 in 2008 and made his sevens debut in Las Vegas earlier this year.

The 23-year-old is studying for a Maths and Computing degree at Brunel and will combine revision for exams in May with his rugby programme.

“I can’t wait and I can imagine it’s quite spine tingling,” said Odejobi, who has added up the benefits of switching from backs to forwards in both forms of the game.

“With us going so well this year we can really make a good impression and with it being 30 points rather than 24 for a win that could be a massive boost for the rest of the year.”

“I’ve changed to flanker and I’ve played one game there for Wasps A and one for Esher so far. Playing in the forwards at sevens is pretty similar to playing seven at 15s, so if I do play any more 15s it will be there.”

England squad: Greg Barden (Royal Navy), John Brake England Sevens), Dan Caprice (England Sevens), Chris Cracknell (England Sevens), Ben Gollings (England Sevens), Ollie Lindsay-Hague (Harlequins), Dan Norton (Bristol Rugby), Mark Odejobi (Esher and Brunel Univ), Tom Powell (England Sevens), James Rodwell (England Sevens), Nick Royle (England Sevens), Mathew Turner (England Sevens).

You can watch England Sevens in action on May 21 and 22 at Twickenham Stadium in the Emirates Airline London Sevens, the penultimate leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series. Tickets are available from £15 via rfu.com

Ben Gollings in fine form for England Sevens

England beat South Africa 21-7 to win the plate at the Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens.

It was only the second time England had beaten the Boks in sevens on South African soil in what was a hyper-competitive plate competition.

England had to bounce back from their cup loss against winners New Zealand to beat Australia 24-5 in the plate semi final.

The last time an England side had beaten a South Africa side on their home patch was in 2003, but with Christian Wade (London Wasps), Worcester’s Jake Abbott, Ben Gollings (Gold Coast) and Isoa Damudamu (British Army) in inspired form Ben Ryan’s side ground out an impressive win, the biggest defeat Paul Treu’s side had faced in 80 matches.

England add 12 points to their World Series tally which puts them in third place behind Fiji and New Zealand respectively after reaching the Dubai cup semi final earlier this month.

England: Jake Abbott (Worcester Warriors), Kevin Barrett (capt, Saracens), Chris Brightwell (Birmingham & Solihull), Dan Caprice (Blackheath RFC), Chris Cracknell (Unattached), Isoa Damudamu (British Army), Ben Gollings (Gold Coast, Australia), Dan Norton (Bristol Rugby), James Rodwell (Moseley RFC), Nick Royle (Fylde RFC), Matt Turner (Bristol Rugby), Christian Wade (London Wasps)

England Sevens Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens results:

• December 11, England 42-0 Tunisia
• December 11, England 17-7 Argentina
• December 11, Scotland 19-29 England
• December 12, cup quarter final England 19-22 New Zealand
• December 12, plate semi final England 24-5 Australia
• December 12, plate final England 21-7 South Africa