The Kiama 7s will celebrate it’s 50^th tournament on the beautiful NSW South Coast later this month, dating all the way back to the inaugural tournament in 1973.

While the local boys, Kiama, won two of the first three tournaments in the early 70s, a Randwick side starting three Ella brothers soon began to dominate, winning 10 titles in 15 years through the 70s and 80s.

“I think I first played down at Kiama in 1978, somewhere around then. I finished school and joined Randwick and we headed down each year,” Glen Ella told Rugby News.

“It’s always been a great tournament. It was the start of the season for us, we never really did much of a preseason so we used the Sevens tournaments to build our fitness.

“The location of the tournament is unreal, surrounded by the ocean. You finish a game and within a few minutes you’re in the water having a swim. It was a really comfortable environment and something we all looked forward to every year.”

Ella said there wasn’t a heap of Sevens rugby played back in the day, but the Kiama tournament was always able to draw a crowd.

“There were a few other tournaments, I think Eastwood usually hosted one as well and we would always travel up to Queensland to play a tournament up there each year.