England coach sets sights on world crown

Dubai: As the only Northern Hemisphere side to have beaten their Southern counterparts on a regular basis, England have done well for themselves on the Sevens circuit.

However, that is not good enough for coach Ben Ryan, who wants to see the side achieve greatness by becoming the Sevens World champions.

England fell short in Dubai last weekend, but as the sevens shindig travels to South Africa for next week's second round, Ryan is hoping he can put paid to their last-minute disappointment suffered as a result of the Boks' winning injury-time try.

His side lost 19-12 in Saturday's final and Ryan said: "We want to be the best sevens side in the world and that can only be achieved with us being World Series champions.

"Our defence over the two days was pretty rock solid and it gave us the edge in the [21-19] semifinal victory over New Zealand.

"The final was little bit less expansive and we expected South Africa to be a bit more confrontational. We came back from 12-0 down, even though the cards were marked against us because of the injuries.

"We fought back, scored two cracking tries and we had a little further to go. We had a lineout and had we made that count, it would've been our trophy.

"In the end, it was a matter of small margins. We lost in the dying seconds, which shows the team is learning and that we've not just turned the corner, but are in the process of setting a particular model of rugby."

England beat the Kiwis and Argentina on their way to the final and Ryan hammered home the point that his side is the only Northern Hemisphere team to consistently beat rivals from the other side of the equator.

"I can see that we are steadily improving. We've reached the finals of the last two tournaments and have been very competitive against some of the top sevens sides.

"We are the only side to have beaten New Zealand consistently at any level in the last five years and we've done it twice now in a matter of months," he added.