DUBAI: It was not quite Waterloo, but Wellington (NZ) witnessed some equally surprising victories in the last round of the major rugby sevens tournaments before the Rugby World Cup Sevens from March 5 to 7 in Dubai, for it was England that emerged as eventual champions for the first time.

A storming Kenya overturned surprised current series winners South Africa, Wales upset a New Zealand team that remembered losing to England in the last round of the IRB Sevens and a revitalized England emerged as winners. Along the way, Argentina beat England and the USA defeated reigning world champions Fiji. Wales completely stunned New Zealand with a 28-17 victory in the pool stages in Wellington over the weekend and then critically lost out 26-12 to South Africa in the Plate final.

The tournament blew apart the cozy predictability of southern hemisphere dominance in the rugby world and set the scene for the most exciting seven’s tournament ever.

“The Wellington Sevens produced some intriguing results over the weekend. New Zealand were by far the most dominant team in the world last season but this season is proving to be rather unpredictable,” said Gary Chapman, President Group Services and Dnata, Emirates Group — Principal Partner of the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2009.

An understatement if ever there was one. For during the tournament the Welsh, no respecters of past form as they showed when their 15’s team defeated and simply mobbed Scotland last Sunday in the Six Nations championship, overran Fiji — the two times winners of the world Cup and popularly seen as the team to beat.

There will be fretting in the Fiji camp. They arrive in Dubai as defending champions, having won the World Cup Sevens title in Hong Kong in 2005. Under the guidance of new coach, Iliesa Tanivula, the Fijians only managed to progress as far as the Plate semifinals in Wellington where they were beaten 14-12 by the Welsh. Kenyan captain Humphrey Kayange was however greatly exercised by his team’s performance. “There are three teams we haven’t beaten and South Africa was one of them so it’s a milestone we’ve reached. And we’ll continue to build it up from there,” he said, adding that the victory was a massive confidence boost ahead of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. “After such a feat, everyone is feeling very upbeat and looking forward to the harder games ahead and playing the way we have played here,” he said.

England’s confidence will be at a peak after their first win at the Wellington Sevens. They last won the Melrose (World) Cup in 1993. “This has got away from me for eight years now. We’ve got close a number of times but not quite close enough. This is brilliant,” said England’s Ben Gollings — the man who notched up the final conversion to clinch his side’s 19-17 win over New Zealand. “A lot of people would have written us off at half time but we knew we had it in us and we stuck at it and got the last try and won the game.”

England current coach Ben Ryan was thrilled with his first tournament win with the side: “It’s amazing; My first win with the team and our first win in New Zealand — one tournament away from the World Cup.”

He added with becoming modesty; “We’re timing our run reasonably well.”

“We’ve worked really hard. We’ve had a consistency in our players and they’re really fit. And they’ve got a lot of belief and that belief is climbing,” he said.

England has been drawn in Pool E along with the dangerously unpredictable Kenyan side, Tunisia and Hong Kong. Speaking about the prospect of facing Kenya in the pool stages, England coach Ben Ryan explained: “They’re fast, physical, they never give up, and they’re a talented group of players.”

So, for the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens, the only predictable things are that there will be some extremely exciting rugby and the outcome will be utterly unpredictable.