GB Olympian reflects on Ultimate Sevens after West London finale

The Gtech Community Stadium in Brentford, West London housed the strongest concentration of international sevens talent in the world on Thursday 24th September as the final of the inaugural Ultimate Sevens tournament concluded.

The women’s final saw the two automatic qualifiers and previous leg winners, Atlantic Novas against heavy favourited Pacific Current (two great oceans collide, East vs West, North vs South etc etc) for the coveted Ultimate Sevens trophy.

Despite some incredible tenacity by the Atlantic Novas, who managed to limit the prolific try-scoring World Sevens Player of the Year Maddie Levi to just one try, holding up a second on the line, it was Gabriela Lima of Brazil’s arcing run that saw the Pacific Current take home the trophy with a final score of 12-6.

In the aftermath of the game and the first trophy lift in the melee of all the players piling onto the pitch, Atlantic Novas and GB sevens player, Isla Norman-Bell, gave her reaction to the final and her time in this brand new tournament.

“Honestly I’ve had the most amazing time. I love sevens so much and we brought such an experienced group but also some new people as well from all over the world coming together,” Norman-Bell told RugbyPass.

“We’ve jelled as a team so quickly and it’s shown out there on the field there today.

“We were able to do things that not many teams were able to do. I’ve loved it so much. It’s been such a cool concept.”

The six Ultimate Sevens teams, Atlantic Novas, Pacific Current, Sol Feroz, Athletic Albion, Clan Taran, and Foudre Bleue franchised players into the squad, meaning that players who used to compete across international teams on the SVNS circuit were now teammates.

This set up one of the most compelling aspects of this tournament, which was the variety of matchups between rivals, teammates, and nationalities.

Followers of the international circuit would be accustomed to watching the likes of Australia and New Zealand dominated the HSBC SVNS circuit, but how would those same players fare when they had to compete against each other.

The Atlantic Novas side was home to no less than nine nations; Australia (Faith Nathan), GB (Isla Norman-Bell, Ellie Boatman), USA (Alev Kelter, Nia Tolliver), Japan (Yuna Saigo, Chiharu Nakamura), Spain (Silvia Morales), Fiji (Senenieli Donu), Poland (Natalia Pamieta), Denmark (Philippa Huré), and Jamaica (Jasmine Rampton).

With such an incredible diversity of backgrounds and styles, players have had to adapt to both how they trained and played. Isla Norman-Bell explained

“To be honest I think a lot of us like to play the same type of way. We came in and we wanted to play fast, that was our idea and what we wanted.

“In the first training session we came in and all have different calls for things. We all knew what we wanted to do but it was all different. So some people might say a ‘switch’, some people might call it a ‘cut’. So the next day we came together the next day and said these are the words we’re going to use going forwards.

“I think that was the biggest thing and then we’ve been quite lucky. Everyone on our team can speak English. Obviously for some people it’s not their first language but I think that’s been super helpful for us.

Ultimate Sevens has also returned elite sevens back to the UK for the first time since 2023, after London 7s was dropped from the international circuit (breaking a twenty-three-year stint of the competition). Running out in front of a ‘home’ cloud was even more special for Norman-Bell, who plays her fifteens club rugby at Trailfinders Women in the PWR, a stones throw away from the Gtech Community Stadium over in Ealing.

The competition has been a brilliant advert for the sport and in particular what it could provide for female players worldwide. Reflecting on this and her advice for any aspiring young players eyeing up future iterations of the tournament, she said

“I’ve missed it so much, like playing in front of friends and family is something you can’t beat. I have a lot friends here so it’s been super special and we’ve always wanted to play at home and being able to do that again has been so special to all of us.

“I would just say give it a go and work really hard. Working hard is going to get you places. But honestly enjoy it, we’ve had so much fun and I think that’s what sevens brings and that what we hoped the crowd really enjoyed but just give everything a go and give sevens a go!”