South Africa clinch first World Series
From the opening passages of play in Dubai to the season's closing stages in Edinburgh, the 2008/09 IRB Sevens World Series was marked by the advent of the 'Sevens professional'.
Across all of the teams the levels of fitness, analysis and overall attention to detail reached new levels, which in turn caused more upsets and raised the bar of competition to new standards.
Kenya beat all of the game's superpowers, with brothers Collins and Humphrey Kayange in thrilling form, while the likes of USA, Tonga and Portugal also reached new heights.
But even in this environment of combined development, one team stood head and shoulders above the rest: South Africa.
New Zealand's eight-time World Series-winning Sevens coach Gordon Tietjens has often pointed to three unwritten rules of engagement for any side wanting to challenge for the overall title: A strong start, consistency of selection and consistency of performance, and Paul Treu's Springbok Sevens team delivered on all counts.
Never before had the likes of Mzwandile Stick, Frankie Horne, Ryno Benjamin and Gio Aplon won two consecutive titles on the grand prix-style Series, but in the 2008/09 season they did so at the first opportunity.
Cup victory at the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens against a superb England effort was followed a week later by the one that mattered to them the most, their home South Africa Sevens title in George. For the first time, Treu and his side seemed to handle the pressure of the occasion and rose to it to conquor New Zealand, who relinquished a second Cup title in as many weeks.
The secret? For two years already, Paul Treu had been setting in place a full-time contracted core of Sevens specialists, who were now earning their living playing predominantly Sevens out of a base in Stellenbosch, giving Treu the consistency in selection and performance he had craved as a player, captain and coach.
Behind South Africa, things were still very competitive, England and New Zealand leading a barrage of sides snapping at their heels. Ben Ryan's Englishmen won their first ever NZI Sevens title in Wellington in February, New Zealand again runners-up, and then a week later Argentina won only their second Cup title in the Series' 10-year history, in San Diego.
England were runners-up on that occasion which meant that, at the half way stage in the season, South Africa and England were tied on 60 points, just eight clear of New Zealand.
In March, the game's ever-increasing unpredictability was given one glorious week of celebration as Wales, Samoa, Argentina and Kenya combined to stun the so-called favourites and reach the Rugby World Cup Sevens semi finals. Wales would eventually go on to win the Melrose Cup, their country's first rugby world title at any level.
Back on the World Series, Hong Kong provided an almost immediate opportunity for the 'favourites' to bounce back. While collectively they did, the tournament also provided a fourth different Cup winner for the season, from a fourth different continent.
Pio Tuwai and Emosi Vucago were in irresistible form as Fiji beat the South Africans in the final and denied them a first ever HK title, but the Boks bounced back a week later to defend the Adelaide crown they had won a year earlier, beating Kenya in the first ever all-African Cup final to take a stranglehold on the Series.
Twickenham provided them with a first opportunity to taste overall title success, but an inspired England beat New Zealand to the Cup to ensure that the Boks had to at least turn up at Murrayfield a week later.
And turn up they did, first earning the Cup quarter final place on day one that secured their first IRB Sevens World Series title, and then winning through to the Cup final, where they lost to a resurgent Fiji.
The celebrations were slightly muffled by Fiji's success, but Treu's side had done enough over the course of the season to be regarded as the finest Sevens team in the world, with a collective spirit that was very much to the fore.
Kenya's Collins Injera finished as the season's top try-scorer and England captain Ollie Phillips was singled out as the IRB Sevens Player of the Year, in association with Emirates Airlines, but as a team it had been South Africa's season - no question of that.
