In the first of our series of rugby shocks, we hear from three members of the Wales Sevens squad who defied pre-tournament odds of 80/1 to win Rugby World Cup Sevens 2009.
RHODRI MCATEE
When Wales won the Sevens World Cup as 80/1 outsiders, we ended the evening sober. It was something like £300 a round in the Atlantis Hotel nightclub and none of us had become millionaires overnight!
We went into that tournament just happy to be in Dubai as we’d been to all manner of places – Georgia, Copenhagen and Hannover – just to qualify. We were very relaxed all the way through even when we met New Zealand. We’d beaten them 7-5 the year before in Wellington when their scrum-half headbutted me and was sent off. I like to think I took one for the team!
It wasn’t really until half-time in the final against Argentina, when we had a slender lead, that we properly switched on and realised what was at stake – that we were 10 minutes away from achieving something really special.
When the final whistle sounded and it dawned on us what we’d achieved, I remember running off to find my wife. She’d bought a ticket even before the Wales squad was announced so luckily that gamble paid off and her being there, made it even more special.
Apparently seeing the skill and athleticism of sevens and how anyone could beat anyone else on their day persuaded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to vote rugby sevens into the Games later that year.
I also played at a Commonwealth Games and close to 20 tournaments in total for Wales, collecting plates and bowls and all manners of cutlery along the way.
JAMES MERRIMAN
Winning the Rugby Sevens World Cup with Wales has to the standout moment of my career; over 10 years on, it’s not sunk in to be honest.
We were written off before the tournament started in Dubai and the odds on us winning it drifted from 80/1 to 125/1 after we’d lost the first game to Argentina.
Very few people would’ve had us down to beat Sevens kings New Zealand in the quarter-final let alone go all the way. But our squad had been together for two to three years and everyone knew their roles.
We had to go through qualifying to get there in the first place and winning some tough matches in places like Denmark, Georgia and Germany clearly stood us in good stead.
My only regret was that I never got a cap in 15s.
RICHIE PUGH
For me, and probably most of the team, asides from possibly Rhys Webb, playing in that tournament was a definite career highlight.
Victory over New Zealand at the Wellington Sevens a few weeks earlier had given us a real sense of self-belief.
We beat them again in the World Cup quarter-finals and things steamrolled from there, as we turned over Samoa and then Argentina, who we’d lost to the day before in pool play.
I clearly remember Lee Williams putting me in space for the first try of the final which helped settle the nerves and push us on for the win.
I owe a lot to sevens because much of my rugby was in that format of the game. After I retired in 2013, I was lucky enough to be invited by Paul John to coach the women’s sevens team. To then go on and experience the Rio Olympics was a real thrill.
RWC SEVENS 2009 FINAL
WALES 19-12 ARGENTINA 12 – Read the BBC report here>>
