After captaining the 2001 World Cup England 7's team I decided to retire from International 7's and concentrate on resuming my career as a Chartered Surveyor with DTZ Debenham Tie Leung whilst playing part time in the premiership. It would also allow me to be involved more with The Samurai's.

Not to be !! I received a call from the newly appointed 7's coach Joe Lydon asking if I would join his 7's coaching team for the 2002 IRB series and Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Having captained the side at the 1998 games, I immediately jumped at the opportunity and new challenge. Joe told me that the only catch was I would have to play at the beginning which meant getting some 7's fitness under my belt pretty quickly !!

The series started in Durban and our current ranking was 8. We surpassed all our expectations reaching our first ever IRB semi-final losing to Samoa. We were all disappointed as we felt we had not performed in the game, but nonetheless it was a good start and something to build on.

We recognised we had to build a structure and understanding within our game to enable us to work effective systems dependant on who we were playing and we worked on this between Durban and the South American legs in Chile and Argentina as well as identifying the players we wanted to develop both for the Commonwealth Games and the England Senior XV. We achieved 2 quarter finals in these legs and our playing 7's structure had improved. In both cases we lost to the eventual winners. This again was the case in Australia where we lost narrowly to the Aussies who went on to overpower the Kiwis in the final, by some 40-50 points.

In Wellington we made our first significant breakthrough against Fiji in the quarter finals playing some fantastic 7's to beat them in extra time. Yet again we ran out of steam and lost to Samoa in the semi's but it was to prove a turning point. It was my last leg as a player and new younger 7's specialists were well and truly emerging in Simon Amor and Ben Gollings not to mention rising stars, previously unheard of, in Nick Duncombe, Geoff Appleford, James Forrester and James Simpson Daniel.

As always things were going too successfully for the squad and the old argument of Club vs Country reared its ugly head, which severely effected our preparation for Beijing and Hong Kong. I think this problem will rage on for some time. The underlying fact was that England had to travel to Beijing with 8 players plus myself. On this leg the boys were fantastic playing with no rest or rotation, they equipped themselves superbly to gain a quarter final place beating Samoa in order to achieve this.

Reinforcements were arriving in Hong Kong with 5 players flying out to join us, as it was a Six Nations weekend. We quickly gelled the boys together and worked hard on all technical aspects of the game, in the limited time we had. We were fully aware of the expectations on England at Hong Kong which is our second home on the IRB circuit.

Hong Kong is the one place, apart from home, where England 7's are adored and we did not let them down. We exploded in the tournament, dominating every team we played, on average conceding 1 try a game and scoring 5. The boys worked tirelessly to get to the final where we would meet Fiji. National anthems bellowed out and allowed the crowd to sing the English anthem in public for the first time since Hong Kong was handed over in 1997. The boys did not let the crowd and South Stand down ! Producing a scintillating display to secure the trophy and become the first national northern hemisphere side to win the Hong Kong 7's and in fact an IRB leg of the sevens. You can be assured we celebrated !!

We were rising up the IRB rankings and our aim was to secure a top 4 seed for the Commonwealth Games. We could not afford to rest on our laurels. In Singapore we managed to obtain a semi-final finish and in Malaysia a quarter final, again paying the price for the Club vs Country argument. By the end of those legs New Zealand had secured the IRB Series which reflects their current supremacy in the shortened game.

We entered the London leg confident that we could make a statement. We started well as we needed to do and got better and better with each game. We met South Africa in the semi and had a couple of lapses in our defensive concentration. The game was lost and we left London frustrated and disappointed moving on to Cardiff for the final leg.

Cardiff was a strange tournament. We entered it on a low and we were in a potentially very difficult group. We started the group games poorly and had to 'dig deep' to progress, eventually winning the group. The second day we gained in confidence and progressed to the semi to meet Fiji. The winner of this game would secure 3rd seed in the IRB. Our boys rose to the occasion and convincingly won to earn a final against New Zealand. The final was very physical and exciting but the kiwis edged it proving that whilst we have made significant improvements this year we have to gain their consistency to compete with them. You can have nothing but respect for the way New Zealand equipped themselves throughout the series and they were worthy winners.

In our first season we reflected back with success, in that we managed to enable England to become a recognised 7's force and secure 3rd seed, from 8th for the Commonwealth Games for which we have already started preparation. We have also provided England with a crop of new stars in James Forrester, James Simpson Daniel, Nick Duncombe and Geoff Appleford all of whom have now represented the England 1st XV with Geoff and Nick gaining their first caps.

Within our build up to the Commonwealth we have had strong links with The Samurai where we have worked with The management to identify and develop players for the Commonwealth Squad, as well as future England 7's players. As a result, I went to Portugal this year to watch 2 players. The Samurai management asked me to bring my boots, just in case !! As always The Samurai had an injury the second day and I blew the dust off and got my boots on.

The Lisbon 7s is one of the few tournaments that the Samurai have not won and the team was desperate to add this to their list of honours. After a tough first day, we eventually reached the final where we would meet The Penguins. Serevi, Miller, Sanderson and all !! In a scintillating final of a very high standard we ran out winners 38 - 24. I managed to finish the game (I don't know how, I was absolutely knackered after 10 mins each way) somehow.

A great weekend was had by all, The Samurais won the trophy that had eluded them for so long and the 2 players I had gone to monitor have made the final Commonwealth games squad of 20. On top of this we have identified 3 or 4 more potential England 7's players. A good trip all round !!

Who says the invitation 7's circuit is struggling, it is as strong as ever and is proving to be a great breading ground for potential England 7's talent.