The Brumbies celebrate after winning the inaugural World Club 7s in London.

by Brendan Bradford –

The Brumbies fell agonisingly short in the Super Rugby final but bettered 11 other teams to win the World Club Sevens competition at Twickenham last weekend.

Winning their quarter-final in extra-time with six players before accounting for Buenos Aries in the semis and downing Auckland 17-14 in a tense final, the Stephen Larkham-coached side becomes the tournament’s inaugural winner.

With the shortened form of the game being introduced to the Olympics in 2016, the World Club 7s tournament is a new fixture on the Sevens landscape. Consisting of three pools of four club teams from around the globe, the tournament used the same format as the IRB Sevens World Series with sides split into Shield, Plate and Cup competitions on day two.  

New York City Sevens won the Plate over Gloucester, Kuban Krasnodar won the Shield over Vodacom Blue Bulls, while Brumbies flyer Henry Speight was named Player of the Tournament.

“It means a whole lot to win this. It’s not only for us but for the whole Brumbies team back in Canberra,” said Speight.

Player of the Tournament, Henry Speight scores the winning try against Auckland.

“We’ve been through the whole season together and it’s great to end on a good note and take some silverware home. We went into that game just thinking of playing for each other and playing for the jersey and against a tough team like Auckland, to get over them early is a massive confidence boost.”

Trailing Saracens Moscow 12-5 at halftime in the quarter-final and playing with six men after Jordan Smiler was red carded for a tip tackle, the Brumbies fought back with tries to Speight and Rodney Iona for a 17-12 lead with three minutes left on the clock – but in Sevens, three minutes is an eternity. As time ran out, the depleted Canberra side was finally caught short out wide, but the conversion missed and the match went into golden-point extra-time.

Experience and professionalism proved the difference as the well-organised Brumbies forced a knock-on and a scrum penalty to surge into the attacking half. Sucking up defenders on one side of the field, Colby Fainga’a was left open on the left edge to attack from a long pass. The flanker drew in a couple of players, jinked inside and performed a backhanded offload in the tackle. Two more quick offloads followed before Fainga’a recovered to stroll into the corner to steal an unlikely victory.

The Brumbies easily defeated Buenos Aries 26-7 in the semi-final courtesy of a double to Steven Van der Walt to set up a showdown with a slick looking Auckland side. The Kiwi outfit had earlier destroyed speedster Carlin Isles’ San Francisco side 40-12 in the quarter-finals before despatching Harlequins 31-14 in the semi.

Brumby flyer Tom Cox sprinted 70-metres down the left flank to score his fourth try of the tournament after just 20-seconds of the final before Speight powered over in the fifth minute for a 12-0 halftime lead.

Auckland try-scoring machine Kali Hala snapped up a loose ball on halfway in the 10th minute to convert one of the New Zealand side’s few opportunities. The pint-sized speedster dotted down again after the Brumbies fumbled the restart and with 90-seconds left to play, Auckland were up 14-12. Fittingly, it was Player of the Tournament Henry Speight who found himself in a bit of space on the right wing to outpace four cover defenders and score the match-winning try just before the final siren sounded.

“I was fortunate to be on the end of some good passing and some good work by the other guys and it’s all about taking opportunities,” said Speight.

“The set-up has been great and the quality of the Sevens has been incredible and we’re building something great with this World Club 7s.”