Wests Tigers’ players celebrate their World Sevens’ win. Scott Sattler is on the right, front row, wearing a cap
Queenslander, Scott Sattler was named Player of the Tournament after Wests Tigers claimed their first title – the World Sevens’ crown at Sydney’s Aussie Stadium.
The Tigers upset Parramatta 18-7 in the final of the $100,000 tournament, which was contested by the 15 NRL clubs as well as New South Wales Country, Widnes (England), Lebanon, New Zealand Residents, NASCA Aboriginal All Stars, Tonga, France, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa and Russia, with Russian players, Vladimir Trofimov and Sergey Dobrynine attracting interest from Tigers’ coach, Tim Sheens.
Penrith and Canterbury did not enter into the spirit of the tournament, fielding below strength sides, although Premiers, Penrith had a big commitment looming, with their trip to England to play Bradford at McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield in the World Club Challenge final.
Wests Tigers is a joint venture between Balmain and Western Suburbs, with the ‘forced marriage’ taking place in 1999. The Sevens was Scott Sattler’s first outing for his new club, after defecting from Penrith, where he achieved cult hero status with his sensational, try saving cover defending tackle in the 2003 Grand Final win over the Sydney Roosters, a tackle which was a throw back to the days of John Raper and Ron Coote. Other new recruits at the Tigers included Pat Richards and Shane Elford.
Besides Sattler, another star for the Tigers in the Sevens was rookie, Benji Marshall, the Kiwi from Gold Coast high school, Keebra Park.
Parramatta’s Luke Burt was the tournament’s highest points scorer, finishing with 40, including six tries. New Cronulla winger, Nathan Merritt broke the record for the most tries in a Sevens match, when he crossed five times in the Sharks’ pool victory over Widnes.
Endeavour Sports High from Cronulla, defeated Hunter Sports High (Newcastle) 38-0 in the Schools Final.
I covered the Sevens for ‘The Courier-Mail’, and what an eventful assignment it turned out to be. I flew into Sydney on Saturday, January 24 on the same flight as the Brisbane Broncos, and things started well, with Qantas upgrading me to Business Class.
I couldn’t get into the Stadium at first, because NRL PR, Louise Weaver got stuck in traffic, and she had my accreditation. I filed a stack of stories for the Sunday-Mail, and retired, exhausted, in my Surry Hills Hotel room at 10.45 p.m.
I was rudely awakened at 5.45 a.m. by an intruder. I chased the unkempt looking, middle aged, white fellow up the hallway, and caught him, just as a hotel employee arrived on the scene. I told the employee what had happened, and asked him to keep an eye on this bloke, while I checked whether anything had been taken from the room. The bastard had taken my wallet, but when I returned to the hall, the thief had taken off.
I cancelled my credit cards, but then the thief phoned the hotel to say he had had dumped the wallet in a bin. All he took was $25, probably for cigarettes or beer. I had phoned the police, and the attending constable, Danny Fowler, a former Balmain rugby league player, said he had never heard anything like it, and reasoned that the fellow I collared was so terrified, after the encounter, he decided to make some amends, in case I caught him.
How did the thief get into my room? At first I thought he had come from an adjoining room, because my room was one of those with a ‘common’ door. But it was locked. ‘Investigations’ revealed that when I arrived at my room late on that Saturday night, with my suitcase, and feeling exhausted, I had ‘closed’ the door behind me, and then flopped onto the bed for sleep. The door, it seems, had not closed properly, as the carpet had a ‘rise’, at the crossover with the hallway. Normally I latch doors, or, at least double check that the door has ‘clicked’.
But the bigger question is, how did the thief get into the hotel, which had a 24 hour reception?
After the Sevens final, on the Sunday, I walked back to that hotel (vowing to never stay there again, and I didn’t, despite it being as company preferred hotel), via three beers at the Captain Cook Hotel, where I bumped into a group from the Umina Rugby League Club, who told stories about Brisbane’s Barry Berrigan’s time at the club. I walked from the pub, with a bloke called ‘Sticks’, from Canowindra, as far as Surry Hills, but I had to leave him, he was so drunk.
The next day I covered an International Board meeting at Darling Harbour. My cabbie to Mascot for the flight home, said he was a cousin of former Balmain hooker, Ben Elias.
It all comes back to rugby league. Happy days.
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