Rob Vickerman: Hoping for a repeat of England's 2009 heroics in NZ
Rob Vickerman is savouring his return to the scene of one of England's greatest victories in the build-up to the Wellington Sevens in New Zealand.
England are four points off the top of the table going into the fourth of nine legs in this season's HSBC Sevens World Series on Friday and Saturday.
Their recent record there is good - a semi-final place in 2010 followed by a run to the 2011 final where they were beaten by eventual series champions New Zealand.
But 2009 was something special. With Vickerman back in the fold this term after signing full-time from Newcastle Falcons, almost half the current squad survive from the night when they recovered from 17-0 down to take the title.
Ollie Phillips and Vickerman's tries got them back in it and Isoa Damudamu scored from the last play with Ben Gollings's conversion completing a 19-17 win.
"It was a pretty special day and the whole squad were energised by that performance for the rest of the season," said Vickerman.
"In New Zealand, 17 points down, you have to look deep inside yourself and come out with all guns firing. We got a great score from Ollie and that took us into a last two minutes that were pretty pulsating.
"Wellington is hard to describe if you haven't seen it. It's 30,000-odd people all in the most bespoke fancy dress you can imagine, a real party atmosphere with music pumping between each game. It's a great atmosphere to perform in and beating New Zealand in the final was one of the best experiences for us."
England, who retained their Dubai Sevens title in December, will welcome back John Brake from a hand injury and give a debut to Oxford University student Tom Mitchell at the Westpac Stadium this weekend.
They've spent the break between the Port Elizabeth and Wellington tournaments working on their fitness and adding detail to their tactical plans.
The physical work has included track time with sprint coach Faye Downey and some less sophisticated sessions at Twickenham.
"We've spent time honing our fitness and looking at specific types of game play and of how we can vary it," added Vickerman.
"Especially for me, being full-time now means we can work on some parts of our game that can have a big impact on how we'll play.
"We're on our way to completing a 'three tier challenge' at Twickenham which means running up and down every set of steps in the stadium. We've done the bottom tier and that took 28 minutes. The guys were pretty emotional at the end of that."
Comments
hybrid187 says...
You ever been to a Wellington 7s Nicholas41 ? Ive been to 4 different ones... Dubai, HK, Wellington and Port Elizabeth. Wellington was by far the best, best atmosphere hands down.
Posted 08:17 03rd February 2012
Nicholas41 says...
'30,000 odd people'. That's NZ for you....
Posted 19:34 01st February 2012
APV1 says...
@ rugby_rockstar - Hear! Hear! It's games like that which the Olympics will give a world stage to. I prefer the 15 man game, but it just shows what talent England have available, when we pull off performances like that.
Here's to Wellington, eh?!
Posted 14:45 01st February 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
It was an awesome come back, the sort of thing that sport is all about, but it'll be down to the players of 2012 to bring sucess and they'll be better off looking to the present than 2009. Good luck though guys! Its all down to you!
Posted 11:14 01st February 2012