Wellington Sevens – seven of the best

Above: The late Jonah Lomu played in the first Wellington Sevens tournament and hands the trophy over to 2014 winning captain DJ Forbes. Photo by Dave Lintott Photography. 

Now in its 18th year, there’s been many colourful moments witnessed off the field at the HSBC Wellington Sevens. Below are seven of the tournament’s rugby highlights.

2000: The inaugural Sevens – New stadium, new tournament
Fiji won the inaugural tournament, beating New Zealand 24-14 in the Cup Final. Despite the presence of All Blacks Christian Cullen, Jonah Lomu, Eric Rush and Caleb Ralph, New Zealand was outpaced by Fiji.

Veteran skipper Waisale Serevi led the way for Fiji, but it was Marika Vunibaka and rising sensation Vilimoni Delasau who stole the show with two tries each. Delasau finished the first year of the new sevens series with 82 tries and later played 29 tests for Fiji. Canada, buoyed by raucous support from the crowd, came from behind to beat South Africa 24-21 in the plate final with an Andrew Hoffman try bringing the crowd to their feet. Serevi finished the tournament as the top points scorer with 84 from four tries and 32 conversions.

2003: New Zealand wins for the first time
It took New Zealand four years to win their own tournament, but when they did it proved extremely popular. New Zealand beat England 38-20 in the final. New Zealand led 17-14 at halftime with rampaging local star Roy Kinikinilau crossing for a brace and his Ories club teammate and semi-final hero Tafai loasa gaining the third score. loasa had scored a try with the last play of the Cup semi-final to beat Fiji 24-22.

England stayed in touch with tries to former Kiwi Henry Paul and speedster and 15s international Ugo Monye but eventually New Zealand, spurred on by a wild home crowd, foiled England with Ioasa scoring a hat-trick.

Coach Sir Gordon Tietjens was ecstatic with the impact made by Kinikinilau (he scored twice in the semi-final) and Bay of Plenty 18- year-old Liam Messam who later became an All Black.

2006: The first extra time final
Fiji and South Africa contested a classic 2006 final, after Fiji had controversially bundled New Zealand out at the Cup semi-final stage.

Leading New Zealand player Lote Raikabula had his tournament soured when referee James Leckie sinbinned him in the second half for a high tackle. At the time New Zealand was leading 14-12, but the Fijians punished New Zealand by ruthlessly exploiting their extra man and Neumi Nanuku scored two long range tries to guide his team into the final against South Africa.

Fiji led South Africa 17-5 at halftime, but South Africa stormed back and three tries and took the lead. Fiji had William Ryder in their camp though. Ryder scored three tries and set up another for Epeli Dranivasa in regulation time. In golden point extra time Neumi Nanuku sprinted 80-metres.

2008: Vito steps up for New Zealand
Victor Vito launched himself on to the international stage for the first time, producing a Jonah Lomu-esque match-winning display to lead New Zealand to a third straight Wellington Sevens title.

Vito scored two tries, including the match-winner in the final minute, as New Zealand won a thrilling final 22-17 over Samoa who gave New Zealand the match of their lives before they finally prevailed to make it three wins from three in the world series.

It was a fine team effort from the New Zealanders - Zar Lawrence, skipper DJ Forbes and Lote Raikabula all weighing in with influential displays. But there was no doubting who the star of the show was. Vito had been picked as a possible game-breaker out wide, and he repaid Tietjens' faith in spades during this tournament.

The home side led 12-7 at the break, thanks to two quite special tries from standout individuals Vito and Lawrence.

Vito's score, answered the early strike to Mikaele Pesamino for the Samoans. But the Samoans took the lead with the first score of the second spell, extending it with a dropped goal and then looking for all the world as though they were going to take a thrilling final into extra time after Steven Yates' opportunistic late score had levelled the scores at 17-17. Vito then sealed victory, sending the revellers down to Courtney Place for a night of unprintable mayhem.

2009: England pip New Zealand in thriller
New Zealand was pipped at the post 17-19 by England who captured their first title. England scored a converted try at the death to win the final. England’s Fijian player Isoa Damudamu was the hero, storming on to a nice offload to slice through a tiring Kiwi defence to grab the try that gave the English a thrilling victory.

New Zealand seemingly had the final sewn up when they led 17-0, Paul Grant, Zar Lawrence and captain DJ Forbes all running in tries.

But Ollie Phillips grabbed a try for the English just before halftime to get them back to 5-17. New Zealand then gifted Rob Vickerman an intercept try that got England to within five points, and left them always a danger to snatch the match at the end. When a player from each side - Vickerman and Tomasi Cama - were sinbinned late in the piece for fighting, it set up the dramatic finish. England managed to snaffle possession, and they were good enough to put Damudamu over the chalk.

2014: ‘D-Fence’ wins the tournament for New Zealand
The chants of ‘D-Fence’ reverberated around the packed Westpac Stadium on a wet night as New Zealand blanked tournament favourites South Africa 21-0 in the final and reversed five straight losses to the Blitzbokke going back to 2012. New Zealand had lost their tournament opener to Fiji but went on to win their remaining games by a combined score of 178-0. In the final, New Zealand scored three first half tries, to Sherwin Stowers (2) and Tim Mikkelson. They dug deep in the second half and held on to register a popular win.

2016: Webber scores after the hooter
The All Blacks Sevens sensationally claimed their fifth Wellington Sevens title in the last six years by coming from behind to defeat South Africa 24-21, with Joe Webber crossing for the winning try after the hooter.

The South Africans were on course for victory and led 14-0 after five minutes 21-7 just after half time but 18-year-old Rieko Ioane crossed for a brace of tries in the second half and Webber, who also scored in extra time to give New Zealand a win over South Africa in pool play, dotted down with the last action of the match.

Regan Ware then made two big plays in the dying moments of the match, first making a tackle deep in his own half to stop a seemingly certain South African try, then keeping the ball alive near the South Africa goal line to create the last chance for Webber.