Glen Ella reflects on glory days of Kiama 7s ahead of 52nd tournament this weekend
It starts to smell like rugby season every time the Kiama 7s roll around, a tournament that dates all the way back to the inaugural event 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.
“They used to use the Kiama 7s and the tournament up in QLD to pick the Australian team to play in the Hong Kong 7s.
“That was the only international tournament around at that time and everyone wanted to play in it, so you’d get all the state and Wallabies players playing at Kiama to try to earn selection.”
Ella and his Randwick mates were perfectly suited to Sevens rugby and used the tournament each year to kickstart their preparations for the Shute Shield season.
“John Maxwell was usually our captain down at Kiama, he was a really smart Sevens player and always knew when to slow things down or speed it up,” Ella recalled.
“When Campo started coming along, he was very good. Mick O’Connor was a great Sevens player, there is a long list.”
The tournament now includes men’s, women’s, colts and country teams across six divisions and Ella said it was the perfect way for a club to kickstart their 2024 campaign.
“It’s a different level of fitness so it’s perfect for this time of year. It’s non stop running for 14 minutes, which is great for the lungs.
“Bob Dwyer said to me that to play Sevens at a high level, you’ve got to be a well rounded footballer.
“When you watch Sevens, you work out pretty quick who can tackle, who can pass both ways. Being a back, sometimes you’ve even got to get in tight and do the hard stuff.”
The former Wallaby said his memories from off the field are just as fond as his memories from on them, a tradition that hasn’t changed in over 50 years.
“We used to travel down as a family with my wife and my kids when they were young and it was always a great weekend away.”
“It gave us a chance to catch up with all our mates from other teams that we hadn’t seen over summer and have a laugh together. There was always plenty of sledging, but when we got on the field it always got a bit more serious.
“It was a really enjoyable weekend and it has been for over 50 years.”