The Aussies lead the World Series by winning in London

Longtime rivals New Zealand have taken the London Sevens out of the Aussie Sevens at Twickenham and are now leading the HSBC World Series standings.

Women are traditionally Australian rugby stars and they were Rio Olympic gold medalists in the Sevens program. They have recently won tournaments and a World Series title.

It was hard for men at times, given all the effort and training but they did not get the results they were aiming for.

The performance of the Australian Men’s Sevens team is seriously outstanding.

In addition to the first tournament win since 2018, this is the first Cup final win against New Zealand in 20 years.

As captain Nick Maloff puts it, none of the current squad has ever won a tournament.

It has been a huge change by men. After the Olympics, the only media coverage was about problems on the return flight to Australia.

The other coverage was about the recent coach shuffle. There wasn’t much around real rugby.

So it’s good to see a bit of spotlight in the men’s program.

To see how far the team has come in the last few months, consider that only six of the 13-member London squad were at the Olympics and eight were at the first Dubai tournament on December.

It is worth noting that Henry Hutchison is the second most experienced player and he was injured and did not play in any finals.

Compare this to the women where ten players from the Toulouse / Langford tournament played in most of the tournaments this season and were in the Olympics.

Some may ask, who is this team?

It’s a bunch of quality, hardworking guys.

As Captain Maloff put it, it was a performance like a businessman.

These players do all the basics really well. Notable defense quality, which has become outstanding.

In the past I always felt that eventually the Australian defensive line would break but you don’t have that feeling with this team.

Arguably the only X-Factor player is Maurice Longbottom’s toe and Corey Tool’s blind motion.

If you haven’t seen the tool’s length-of-the-field attempt against Canada, check it out.

Someone knows the name, and someone who was with the Seven was with the Rebels, and now Henry Hutchinson is back on the Seven program.

Dietrich Roach is only 20 years old. He made his Olympic debut and is playing much older than his age and is currently the top points scorer in the world series.

Then you have Josh Turner. My guess is I would say he is a seasoned seven player.

Henry Patterson has a great mustache and he made three tries in the final and was the best player in the final. He really step by step.

The media prefers a rugby league link, so his claim to fame is that his father played for the Roosters and he tried for the Roosters but was cut off so he turned to rugby with East on the Shute Shield.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on young Ben Dowling, who is on the NSW academy system and has been selected for the Junior Wallaby.

Who else?

In the last few tournaments, Shoot Shield Club has a range of ring-ins. In London were Ben Marr (Waringah), Max Burry (Northern Suburbs) and Matthew Gonzalez (Eastwood).

All of these players and others who have been brought in have done a great job for the team every time.

Obviously some serious credit must go to Coach John Manenti, Chucky Standard and the coaching crew.

If you want to read a game-by-game summary, visit rugby.com.au.

A few highlights were that the Aussies lost to New Zealand in the pool game but won in the final. Golden Point won in the final.

The Australians took revenge against France in the pool. France beat them in the quarter-finals in Toulouse last week and in the quarter-finals against South Africa they were trailing 17-nil but came back with a 21-17 win.

If you get a chance, watch the final. It’s well worth a watch.

One final observation is that it is interesting men London and won Sydney Morning Herald Made an article.

Even the women who won the tournament this year and the overall world series title did not receive an article, although their success was included in the men’s article.

In fact, this is the first Rugby Seven article since December 2021 when both the men’s and women’s teams performed well in Dubai.