We flew into Dubai with Emirates to watch International Rugby 7s. The hotel we decided upon was Le Meridien and most importantly it was next door to a rugby bar, Baristi. Plenty of young rugby players in town for the start of World Rugby's Sevens Series.
The official title is the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, and on page 7 of the programme we were greeted by the familiar face that is World Rugby Chairman, Bill Beaumont.
Two interesting rugby 7s facts:
1/ for the first time, the series will feature gold, silver and bronze medals as World Rugby aligns with the Olympic Games
2/ on 11 th August 2016, Fiji was the most googled term worldwide!!
The most amazing fact was that it was Bill giving us these connected rugby facts; a long way from standing under that tree at Fylde Rugby Club. Talking of which, Fylde Head Coach, Paul Arnold was in town representing Joining Jack Legends and Veterans.
Joining Jack had an excellent Thursday and a strong Friday, we look forward to seeing them live on Saturday.
On the microphone on pitch 1 was hard working RPA boss, Damian Hopley. Clear and articulate, he brought professionalism to the party atmosphere around him. On the field, Richard Haughton was one of the stand out referees
The afternoon started wonderfully for Uganda who crossed the white wash against the USA. The Welsh looked magnificent against Fiji for the first ten minutes, however two well worked kick off collections allowed Fiji to take the ascendancy.
Around the grounds it was great to meet up with Tom Driver with the Assassins, Harry Sanders with Wyvern Quins and many other familiar faces from 7s tournaments around the UK and Europe.
Making his World Series debut for Wales was Stefan Andrews, who looked and sounded relaxed before their final game of the day versus Canada.
The final game in the World Series was NZ v England, at half time it was 12 - 0 to the men in white. Within a minute of starting the 2nd half it was 12-7, with Stowers the try scorer. Then Bibby broke, chipped ahead and Dan Norton seemingly messing the opportunity up - but he scored. It was 19-7
Then with 2 minutes to go a yellow for NZ and Mitchell chipped ahead, chased the ball himself and scored the touch down. The men in white led 26-7
The game concluded with NZ's captain scoring a try from a cross field kick and it finished 26-12
Great day Dubai 7s and thanks to www.brightsuntravel.com
