Last weekend at Twickenham, New Zealand clinched the 2010/11 HSBC Sevens World Series, taking their tally to nine World Series titles with a tournament to spare.
By any standards in modern sport, their roll of honour in Sevens amounts to a phenomenal achievement, especially running seamlessly on from another Commonwealth Games gold in Delhi shortly before the start of the season.
The reasons for New Zealand's prolonged and startling success in the Sevens game are many and varied, but some are more significant that others. Here we outline some of those 'secrets' to their success in the ever evolving and ever more competitive game of Rugby Sevens.
The mastermind: Gordon Tietjens
High standards, an impeccable workrate, an eye for talent and a passion for the game are the hallmarks which still set Gordon Tietjens apart from all those looking to emulate his feats in Sevens coaching.
The chasing pack is certainly catching up with him - from World Series winners Paul Treu (South Africa) and Stephen Betham (Samoa) to England's Ben Ryan, Wales' World Cup winner Paul John, Australia's former playing great Michael O'Connor and the likes of Tomaz Morais of Portugal and USA's Al Caravelli - but somehow the man from Mount Maunganui continues to turn out a team capable of lasting the distance over the entirety of a long season.
Famously, he sets his stall out with impeccable fitness standards. 'Titch' himself is regularly to be seen in the gym well before 7am, slogging up a treadmill and pulling weights, before opting for the healthy option at the breakfast bar. In a sport which demands the very highest in fitness standards, he lives the job.
Over and above all of this, it might just be possible that Tietjens is a better scout than he is a coach. In his 18-year tenure as New Zealand Sevens coach, during which time he's won nine of the 12 World Series, a Rugby World Cup Sevens and all four Commonwealth golds, he has turned out 37 All Blacks, from the likes of Lomu and Cullen through to the more modern day Messam, Jane, Vito and Dagg.
Not many coaches in Sevens are granted their 'first picks' by their respective unions, but Tietjens is not even given access to his country's top 40 or so Under 20s, which is frightening when you consider what Frank Halai and Declan O'Donnell have done this season. It also shows that his nurturing of talent spurned by other coaches is unsurpassed.
And, while bringing through the likes of Halai, O'Donnell, Heem and Christie, he also commands the utmost respect from his senior players, who return season after season to play for him through thick and thin - players like Lote Raikabula, whom he tranformed from a willowy centre into a strapping hooker, and Tomasi Cama, who has blossomed under his tutelage to become arguably the finest player of the current generation.
Make no mistake, if Simon Cowell were on the look-out for sports coaches, this man would win X-Factor. Why? Ask Tietjens himself. Perhaps it's because as general manager of a large engineering firm he also has a balance to his life, although lord only knows how he keeps all his balls up in the air. No doubt he'd tell you that the answer is to be found somewhere in his autobiography, aptly entitled 'Titch: Sevens is my Game'.
The captain: DJ Forbes
From Eric Rush and Karl Tenana through to Liam Messam and now DJ Forbes, Tietjens has always enjoyed the support of a strong captain and leadership structure.
Forbes' own style of leadership is right out of the kiwi manual, with a twist.
Samoan by birth - in fact the nephew of Samoan test prop Peter Fatialofa - he failed to make it into the Samoan test reckoning so instead opted to turn out for New Zealand Sevens. Along the way he's harboured genuine desires to win a Super Rugby contract, perhaps still does, and the fact that he's so far proved unsuccessful in that regard only goes to emphasise the strength of NZ's conveyor belt in the back row area.
Forbes would probably make it into most starting 26s in Europe's leading divisons but his loyalty to New Zealand and Tietjens is part of what makes his captaincy so genuine.
You might also argue that Tietjens was incredibly astute in appointing a player that he himself rated, but whom he suspected might never quite make the grade in the eyes of his 15-a-side colleagues in New Zealand.
Off the pitch Forbes is quiet, reserved and deeply religious. On the field he is strong, powerful, dogged, inspiring and hugely competitive, all of which combines to make him very uncomfortable to play against. He also seems to have a knack of knowing how and when to speak with the referee.
Most of all, when Forbes is in New Zealand's squad, while Raikabula, Cama, Mikkelson and King all rank up with him as senior players, there is no doubt who is in charge.
The assassin: Tomasi Cama
This season perhaps more than any other, Tomasi Cama - son of the great Fijian of the same name - has been a genuine matchwinner for the kiwis, even a tournament-winner.
Go back to South Africa where his tactical cleverness in the final and cool penalty drop goal undid England. More recently, he was voted the outstanding player in Hong Kong and his contribution was perhaps even more profoud a week later, when he was the difference between NZ and South Africa in the Adelaide final.
Talk with Ben Gollings, Ben Ryan, any of the current England side - all will tell you that New Zealand are up there at the top this season because they are an outstanding side when it comes to playing in Finals, and the heartbeat behind that fact is Cama.
Raikabula and Mikkelson are almost as important to the side for their versatility and their baffling consistency, but for Sevens genius the little maestro is out on his own and it's only fitting that he should recently have surpassed Amasio Valence Raoma as the country's leading point-scorer in Sevens, because the landmark leads quite rightly to comparisons with another playmaker right out of Tietjens' top drawer.
The finishers: Halai, Donnell, Arnold
Though not perhaps an out-and-out flyer, Toby Arnold is another player who has had a superb season for New Zealand. On the rare occasion when Cama has carried a knock or been slightly off his game, the clever playmaker has tag-teamed seamlessly and provided the kind of go-forward in attack that Kurt Baker provided before him.
In fact, with so many of the 'old guard' performing heroics for Tietjens, he has had free rein to blood players he might have thought would struggle in their debut seasons. In fact, not only has he blooded them, he has witnessed his raw recruits run oppositions ragged like seasoned campaigners.
Declan O'Donnell was a one-man force of nature in Wellington, a revelation, and since then he has dovetailed with the giant Frank Halai, who grows ever more influential. Shane Christie is another young player Tietjens speaks highly of - so watch out for him - and Buxton Popoali'i is a jack-in-a-box character with a sense of fun who plays with a smile on his face.
Hats off to all of them, but most of all to Gordon Tietjens. Somehow he has managed to build up the next generation of mainstays, while also winning a World Series title. And in this day and age, that takes some doing.
Inside Sevens: Heroes - Meet DJ Forbes
