On the same night that New Zealand were crowned HSBC Sevens World Series champions for 2011/12, their playmaker Tomasi Cama has been named IRB Sevens Player of the Year in association with HSBC.
Fijian-born Cama was up for the award for the second year running, having lost out to South Africa’s Cecil Afrika last season.
Once again he has been a key factor behind New Zealand’s excellence and the creative spark behind their 10th World Series success.
"It feels awesome. It’s just a reward for all the hard work from the boys. Without them it would have been impossible to receive this award. I want to thank them as well," Cama said.
"I concentrate on my game and I control what I can control, but to get this is an awesome feeling. Once you have been there for a while you know and understand what’s going on and that’s where the experience comes in.
"For me I just like going out there and enjoying the game, enjoy myself and do what I do best."
Cama fought off stiff competition from compatriot Frank Halai and England’s Mat Turner to win the coveted individual accolade.
As well as finishing the season with 34 tries, Cama’s impeccable drop-kicking helped him to 390 points for the season, the leading mark.
He also ends the season second in the all time point-scoring charts with 1,627, behind only England’s Ben Gollings.
Cama becomes the fourth New Zealand player to win the prize, following Orene Ai’i, Afeleke Pelenise and his captain DJ Forbes.
New Zealand have retained their HSBC Sevens World Series title, ending the season with a third place finish at the Marriott London Sevens to finish on 167 Series points, six ahead of closest rivals Fiji.
The New Zealanders sealed a 10th Series title with a ruthless 36-0 quarter final win against South Africa, but fell to a brilliant Fijian performance in the semi final. However, the New Zealanders recovered to end the season on a high note, beating Argentina in the play-off for bronze.
The Fijians stormed to the London title to cap a season of achievement for them, matching New Zealand’s three Cup titles and underlining just how tight things are at the top of the Sevens game.
A record two-day Sevens crowd of 103,027 attended Twickenham over the weekend, a fitting climax to another thrilling season of international Rugby Sevens.
"It’s pretty special, we worked extremely hard to get this one and I think everyone knows how competitive the Sevens Series is now. We came here with an 11-point lead but still with an opportunity of blowing it," said NZ captain, DJ Forbes.
"The quarter final win (36-0 win against South Africa) was probably our only complete game of rugby this weekend, but there was a lot of passion, a lot behind it to make sure we wrapped up the Series.
"At the end of the day it comes down to consistency and that’s where we were probably a little bit ahead, but taking nothing away from Fiji, they’ve done extremely well to win here.
"I guess for us you could see that we’re used to playing under pressure, regardless of where we’re playing. If you’re wearing a black jersey everyone expects you to do well."
IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: "Once again New Zealand have proved that, over the course of an entire season, they are the finest Sevens side in the world and our congratulations go to them.
"And yet even on this, their day of triumph, they were denied in the Cup semi-finals by their closest challengers Fiji, which again underlines just how competitive our global Game of Rugby Sevens has become.
"In the women’s event too we have seen a wonderful tournament from the Netherlands in reaching a first Cup title and congratulations to England on winning their second title of the season.
"Twickenham has provided a wonderful and fitting stage for the finale of another superb season, capped off by another record crowd for a two-day event. We can look forward to a bright future as we gear towards the 2016 Olympic Games."
Australia took the Plate in London, beating England, who finished the season in third place ahead of Samoa in fourth and South Africa in fifth.
A record two-day Sevens crowd of 103,027 attended Twickenham over the weekend, a fitting climax to another thrilling season of international Rugby Sevens.
The Fijians stormed to the London title to cap a season of achievement for them, matching New Zealand’s three Cup titles and underlining just how tight things are at the top of the Sevens game.
The New Zealanders sealed a 10th Series title with a ruthless 36-0 quarter final win against South Africa, but fell to a brilliant Fijian performance in the semi final. However, the New Zealanders recovered to end the season on a high note, beating Argentina in the play-off for bronze.
Sixth placed Australia won the Plate, Wales lifted the Bowl, France were triumphant in the Shield whilst England won their second IRB Women’s Sevens Challenge Cup.
Australia pip hosts England to Plate
England narrowly missed out on the consolation of a Plate trophy when Dan Bibby missed a conversion and a penalty drop goal in the second half of the Plate final, allowing impressive Australia to hang on to a 14-12 victory and collect 13 Series points.
However, Mat Turner’s try in the final did put him one ahead of teammate Dan Norton as the season’s leading try scorer.
England reached the Plate final after a Turner try and Tom Mitchell conversion clinched a late 17-15 victory against South Africa. Australia reached the final after the Tokyo Sevens winners overturned a 12-5 half time deficit to beat Spain 17-12 in the semi.
Wales beat Scotland in Bowl
Twelve points from Alex Walker hands Wales a 27-5 victory against Scotland in the Bowl, as the reigning RWC Sevens champions collect eight points for the Series.
Two second half tries, one after the final buzzer had sounded, from Dan Fish booked Wales’ place in the Bowl final after a 28-26 victory against Portugal. They met Scotland following Graham Shiel’s side recorded a 31-19 victory against Zimbabwe in the second semi final thanks to two tries from Michael Fedo.
Earlier, 11 points from Alex Walker helped Wales beat USA 28-19 in the second Bowl quarter, entering this competition having lost to Spain and Fiji on day one.
Carl Murray scored twice for Portugal in the day’s opening match against RWC Sevens 2013 hosts Russia. The sides last met in the core team qualifying quarter final in Hong Kong, with Portugal narrowly winning 17-10 on their way to claiming one of the three places for next season’s Series, and recorded a 24-17 victory in London.
In the third match Scotland beat crowd favourites Kenya 21-5 before Dubai Sevens runners-up France suffered a 19-17 defeat to Zimbabwe with Jacques Leitao scoring the winning try for the Cheetahs.
England’s Women secured their second consecutive IRB Challenge Cup Sevens crown on Sunday, defeating the Netherlands 34-7 in impressive style, in the final at Twickenham Stadium.
Worcester’s Joanne Watmore (pictured), who also scored two tries in the final of the Hong Kong leg of this tournament in March, was in fine form and touched down for a hat-trick of tries. Katherine Merchant and Alice Richardson also got on the score-sheet to help secure the victory over a Netherlands side who had been causing upsets all tournament, with wins over world champions Australia and Canada.
England Head Coach Barry Maddocks said: “This has been a great tournament and what a way to end it, winning here in front of thousands of rugby fans and in one of rugby’s greatest stadiums.
“Our performance in the final was excellent. It was a controlled and slick performance and the players worked really hard for this victory. Every one of them played a part. Matches like this, in front of these sorts of crowds and live on television is massive for the development of this sport and we are all thrilled to be a part of it.”
England started the final on the back foot with the Netherlands showing some good support work to break through England’s defence and score. Lorraine Laros converted Annemarije van Rossum try to take a 7-0 lead after just two minutes.
However, some good work by England’s Kay Wilson, Alice Richardson and Emily Scarratt turned the tables and England took a quick tap penalty which set Watmore loose on the left wing to score her first.
Two minutes later and Watmore was on the scoreboard again to the delight of the vociferous Twickenham crowd. This time Richardson and Scarratt created the space for Watmore to run in with ease to take the lead to 10-7.
Just before half-time and England eased their way to a comfortable 17-7 lead when Richardson took a quick penalty deep in the Netherlands’ 22 and inflicted one of her trademark breaks to run in unopposed. Richardson then converted her own try.
Watmore was back in the thick of the action after the restart, causing the Netherlands even more problems. England kept creating the space and Watmore broke and evaded two players to dive over the try-line.
Bristol’s Wilson came close to scoring England’s fifth, but she took a bad knock near the try-line and replacement Merchant came on. Merchant, a prolific try scorer in the XVs game, made an immediate impact scoring nearly on her first touch of the ball. She didn’t quite get over the line but did moments later with a great break out-wide which left the Netherlands with no way to respond.
Merchant then finished off England’s rout when she cut a great line from the back of an England scrum to carve her way through the midfield and score. Richardson kicked the conversion to make the final score 34-7.
England booked their place in the final after a thrilling victory in the semi-finals. England were forced to go to extra time when Canada held them at 12-12. Scarratt, making her England Sevens debut this weekend, touched down for the crucial try after cutting a great line from the back of a scrum.
Maddocks added: “To win two back-to-back Challenge Cups is a massive achievement but this season is by no means over for us. We have got to qualify for the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens next month at the European Championships so winning here today is invaluable preparation for that.”
Dan Norton set a new England record in the HSBC Sevens World Series with tries in victories over France (28-0) and the USA (15-5) on the opening day of the Marriott London Sevens.
Norton scored a record 36thtry of the season as England saw off France 28-0 in the opening game of the Marriott London Sevens.
Former Bristol and Gloucester wing Norton has now scored more times in a sevens campaign than any other England player in the 13-year history of the HSBC Sevens World Series, overtaking Rob Thirlby (35) in a list that includes the likes of Ugo Monye and David Strettle.
England’s other scores came from Sam Edgerley, who picked up to two tries – and a yellow card during the second half – with Tom Mitchell touching down once and kicking four conversions.
England stuttered early on against France with a number of unforced errors but Edgerley broke from long range, Mitchell exploited some good defensive work that turned over the ball and Edgerley again reacted fastest to snatch the ball and race in from inside his own half to put England 21-0 clear at the interval.
The half back was sent to the sin-bin mid-way through the second half, though, but England did well with only six on the field with James Rodwell covering the ground with ball in hand before Turner twisted and turned the French and before putting Norton away.
Former Gloucester and Bristol wing Norton took his total to 37 this term, more than any Englishman has scored in a single season of on the world series, overtaking Rob Thirlby’s tally of 35 in 2003-04.
Sam Edgerley (2) and Tom Mitchell added tries for England against France with Mitchell converting all four.
Edgerley and Mitchell were also on target against the USA, who briefly threatened when Rocco Mauer levelled the game.
Dan Fish got the consolation try against Spain having scored the clincher against Zimbabwe when Richard Smith and Rhys Jones also scored.
England had stuttered during both their opening games with a high error count but they were untroubled once Edgerley – a Latin and Greek student at University College London – raced in from long range.
Mitchell exploited some good defensive work that won a turn-over for the second try and Edgerley again reacted fastest to snatch the ball and race in from inside his own half to put England 21-0 clear at the interval.
The half back was sent to the sin-bin mid-way through the second half, though, but England did well with only six on the field before Mat Turner put Norton away.
England were more composed against the USA, a patient passage of build-up play culminating in Mitchell’s opening try.
Mauer levelled but Edgerley then took advantage of some ball-winning work from Chris Cracknell to dart over, then more thoughtful build-up play allowed Norton to stroll over for this season’s try No.37.
England were edged out of a quarter final thriller 21-14 by Fiji after succumbing to an injury time score on the second morning of the Marriott London Sevens.
World Player of the Year nominee Mat Turner’s two tries had put England on the front foot and they were pushing for the winning score until they were penalised at the breakdown. Fiji then went the length of the field for Jamilai Naikadawa to clinch victory.
The result puts Fiji into the semi finals against New Zealand, who clinched a 10thHSBC Sevens World Series title when they thumped South Africa 36-0. Argentina meet Samoa in the other half of the draw.
Third-placed England now take on South Africa in the semi finals of the Plate competition.
On day one, England had beaten France 28-0 and the USA 15-5 before a 14-7 defeat against Samoa halted their progress.
Against Fiji – who will finish the series in second place – England produced their most incisive attacking work of the weekend.
On the same night that New Zealand were crowned HSBC Sevens World Series champions for 2011/12, their playmaker Tomasi Cama has been named IRB Sevens Player of the Year in association with HSBC. 
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