England third in Sevens

South Africa: the new world champions

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England beat France 26-15 in the IRB Sevens bowl final at Murrayfield and captain Ollie Phillips was proud of his side's achievements in a season which brought tournament wins in London and Wellington.

"We've had a fantastic season and coming third in the IRB series is a massive achievement," said Phillips.

"Yesterday was very disappointing but we had to come back today and get on with it and win the bowl and that's what we did.

"South Africa have been dominant all season and are worthy winners."

England finished third in the final IRB Sevens World Series table after being overtaken by Edinburgh champions Fiji.

Chance

Ben Ryan's men had a mathematical chance of winning the world title after their dramatic victory in the London Sevens at Twickenham last weekend.

But England were knocked out of the main cup competition by defeats to Scotland and Kenya on Saturday and had to settle for winning the bowl.

Fiji snatched second place in the table with a 20-19 victory in the cup final over South Africa, who had already clinched the world series title on Saturday.

Scotland, featuring full internationals Ally Hogg and Sean Lamont, went on from beating England to reach their second successive semi-final but lost to South Africa in sudden death extra time.

Coach Steve Gemmell said: "I'm immensely proud of the players over the last two weekends but it's just a massive disappointment not to reach that cup final having run South Africa so close.

"Over the piece, for this group of players to come together less than two weeks ago and see what they have achieved has been tremendous."

Phillips was later named IRB world Sevens player of the year at a function at Murrayfield.

Fantastic

"It's been a fantastic year personally and collectively for our team and to captain any England side is a huge honour," said Phillips.

"I was surprised to be on the shortlist of nominees for the award, so to win and be named as the best Sevens player in the world is really special.

"There's a lot of players who've graced that turf who are pretty special too, some get recognised, some don't and fortunately for me people have picked me out."

Phillips, who is leaving Newcastle for Stade Francais this summer, becomes the second Englishman to be named world Sevens player of the year.

Former captain Simon Amor - now coach of the successful England women's Sevens team - won the inaugural award in 2004.