Sevens: Crowds awed by local lad

All Black Liam Messam (with ball) playing in the legend's game on Saturday afternoon during the Bayleys National Sevens. Photo / Ben Fraser

You can usually tell how famous a sports star is by the amount of fans they have crowded around them at signing sessions.

Former and current New Zealand Sevens stars were on hand for a legend's game at the Bayleys National Sevens in Rotorua on Saturday afternoon.

While plenty of fans would have enjoyed seeing the likes of DJ Forbes, Tim Mikkelson, Rico Gear and Karl Te Nana running around during the match, the fan favourite was All Black Liam Messam.

A crowd twice the size of the one lining up for ice creams gathered to get autographs from the Rotorua star after the match.

Messam had earlier captained the black team to victory over Forbes' white team, 24-5, during the legend's game.

He said he was enjoying being back in Rotorua and especially catching up with his old mates from the New Zealand Sevens set-up, with whom he won two Commonwealth Games gold medals.

"When I saw all the boys who were playing, I thought it would be good to come down and catch up," he said.

Messam admitted he was trying to stay away from the contact during the legend's game and was letting the older guys line each other up.

He said he was still on holiday at the moment but would be going back to full-time training with the Chiefs at the end of this month.

One of the biggest cheers during the legend's game came when Bay of Plenty men's coach Peter Woods scored a consolation try for the white team.

By the end of the game, the friendly match had turned into a 15-a-side match with all the players rushing on to the field.

Later this year, Messam will return with the Chiefs to play a regular season match at the Rotorua International Stadium, in the Super Rugby competition.

"I'm looking forward to it. It's great to get a proper competition game here and to be a local boy it is good as well."