In his latest column for irbsevens.com, Nigel Starmer-Smith looks back on a record-breaking weekend at Twickenham. 

What a finale to the 2011/12 HSBC Sevens World Series.

Fiji won the Marriott London Sevens, England won the third IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup and New Zealand, well they won a 10th World Series title.

What is great too is that we are not just talking about the New Zealand team that won the overall championship, but the other four teams that won titles, and that has made this season so special.

There were years where seven or eight of the tournaments were won by Fiji or New Zealand, but now we have had five in nine.

Fiji's victory at Twickenham was their third Cup of the season, the same as New Zealand, and you have Samoa, England and Australia all winning too. That is the beauty of Sevens, it just develops and develops.

Alifereti Dere has brought a new dimension back to Fiji and a whole new breath has come with it. When he started the coach said his watch word was 'attack' and now they never put the ball in touch, they attack from anywhere, even behind their own goal line, and that is what they have done having found the players to do so. 

London Sevens: Highlights

New Zealand have had their main core all season with Tomasi Cama, DJ Forbes, Tim Mikkelson, Solomon King and Lote Raikabula, and the new guys who Tietjens has brought in have learned from that experience, that nucleus.

But the extraordinary thing for Fiji is that they only had Joeli Lutumailagi and Setefano Cakau who have played before, with the new boys brought in proving inspirational and with no fear they have taken from the watch word, attack, perfectly. It is absolutely blissful to watch and it has shown people how spectacular Sevens can be.

We saw it in the semi and in the final, how they are the greatest showcase for Sevens in terms of efficiency, disciplines and commitment. For consistency New Zealand win hands down and why they are top this season, but if Fiji are on song, they are unbeatable.

Women, crowds and awards

Another element from the weekend was the third IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup. Canada won in Dubai before England won the next two, but you also look at Australia, or the Netherlands who came through out of the blue, and you can see it is just going to develop like the men's.

Add to that 103,000 fans over the two days in Twickenham and it was phenomenal, a world record. I think back to when the Series started in 1999 and we thought it might take off, but now it is a world game spread from China to South America and it is incredible. 

I don't think anything has developed more.

We also had the awards, a wonderful end to a wonderful season, with the IRB Sevens Player of the Year going to Tomasi Cama. I see what he does and my admiration is unbounded. It is his vision, his options, and he seldom makes a mistake. 

At 31 he is still playing better every season and although he may not be the quickest he is the cleverest, he creates so much, and I think he is an absolute genius. For anyone who wants to play rugby just watch Cama - modest, delightful and full of skills that I adore.

Gordon Tietjens was also recognised in an award very close to my heart as I am lucky enough to sit on the trustees panel that decide who is going to be a legend in Rugby. What an amazing honour to Gordon to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

He has set the standard for the world of Sevens. In1994 he became New Zealand Sevens coach and he is still there. He has lived every round of the World Series and he is deserved, to end up this season winning their 10th title in 13 seasons it extraordinary and at the heart of all that success is this remarkable man.

Hall of Fame #49