Man in black adds class to deserted Sevens

By DAVID LLEWELLYN

TWICKENHAM - It may be called the World Sevens Series but the world appeared to be giving it a miss this morning (NZ time). Indeed there was a moment, not long after the first match had got under way when it looked as if the players in the West Stand out-numbered the spectators in the East Stand at The Stoop.

But, coincidentally, not long after the word went around that Jonah Lomu would be trotting across the road from his Barbarian exertions to turn out for New Zealand in their final match of the preliminaries (against Canada), the ground began to pull bums to seats like iron filings to a magnet.

If the timing of this London leg, the eighth round of the International Board's World Sevens Series could have been better ­ England's clash with the Barbarians just across the road did seem a trifle crass ­the Lomu factor quickly silenced the critics.

Before the name of the giant All Black wing was being bandied around the most famous sevens exponent was hogging the limelight. Waisale Serevi, the Fijian maestro, had got the event off to a perfect start by scoring the first try of the afternoon in Fiji's trouncing of Portugal. The programme had billed the participants as "The world's 16 top sevens exponents". More accurately they were probably the only 16 countries able to compile a 12-man squad for this abbreviated form of the game.

There really were some mis-matches, even if a lot of the more experienced nations were without their big stars. Spain, who had beaten England in Argentina, had stung Argentina yesterday with a last-minute try for victory, but then they came up against Australia and things did not go quite to plan. The Spaniards had not been given such a serious hammering since Sir Francis Drake and Co annihilated the Armada. The Wallabies ran out winners by 61-0, the highest score of the day, and New Zealand's opener against the might of Georgia saw the Kiwis keep a clean sheet.

The Russians proved tricky, they emerged in blue jerseys for their opener, it was their opponents Canada who sported red shirts. They were clearly there as much for fun and frolics as for financial gain. But there is always an exception to the rule and New Zealand, who had registered Lomu in plenty of time, were taking the whole thing extremely seriously. Not for their players the art of improvisation. Everything looked planned and plotted, with every t crossed and i dotted.

Australia were of a similar vein, little was left to chance, and considering that England have lost their proven players to club contracts, the national team or the Lions, they did not look half bad.

The diminutive Simon Amor's sensational 90-metre sprint for one of England's tries in the comfortable victory over Wales was particularly impressive. And by then the crowd was thickening as Twickenham emptied and spilled its spectators over the A316.

- INDEPENDENT