It was from London that we jetted off on a short flight from Heathrow's Terminal 4 to Edinburgh in Scotland for the final leg of the World Sevens series. The London Sevens had been a great tournament with a superb turnout as temperatures reached the high 20s, and the action on the pitch had left the series itself wide open, with Samoa heading to Edinburgh only seven points ahead of New Zealand.

Edinburgh itself is drenched in history. From the moment you arrive and while walking the streets, you feel as though you are walking around an ancient city of dungeons and a history of battles. The tournament hotel was based directly below Edinburgh Castle along a section called the Grass Market, one of the social hubs of Edinburgh, and a really great place to be based for a week.

Being in the city allowed us to do a bit of exploring and travelling, and we managed to fit in quite a bit during the week along with some great training sessions.

I spent a bit of time with Paul Treu and the South African team at a practice session working on some clearing out techniques. Paul has a great bunch of guys together who are relatively young Sevens players and I am sure that they will turn into a quality Sevens team in the near future.

Golf is definitely one of my favorite past-times, and I was lucky enough to play two rounds in the lead-up during the week. The first round was on a championship course just outside of Edinburgh, and it was great, as I shot my best ever round of 73 off a nine handicap. (Worried that may become an eight after that score goes in!)

The second round was probably the most special golf experience I have ever had, as one of the Scottish refs, Neil Patterson, arranged for us to play the Fairmont course at St Andrew's, the home of golf. A links course on the Scottish coast, we were blessed with pleasant weather and little wind, an extremely rare occurrence, and what a day out it was. Superb and a privilege to play at the home of golf. The 83 I shot was more like my true handicap score.

So onto the tournament itself. One of the key changes this year has been the emergence of teams such as USA, Wales, Scotland and Australia. Previously the top two in each pool group was almost a foregone conclusion, but now there are any of three, if not all the teams in a group who have the potential of making it through to the Cup Quarterfinals. This is great for the game of Sevens and bodes well for the Commonwealth and Olympic games coming up in the near future.

Day One went well, with a few upsets here and there. Scotland had pumped in some of their Fifteens squad players and were probably the form team of Day One. I was given their quarterfinal game against England, their arch rivals, on Day Two, and it was a tough game. Put England and Scotland on a sporting field together and you always get tough encounters, but it went well and England came out tops. New Zealand and Samoa both came through their quarterfinal as well, making the equations simple. If Samoa made the final, they would win the series. If they lost in the semi, New Zealand needed to make the final and win it.

I was appointed to the England/Samoa semifinal, and little did I know when I ran out that it would be one of the greatest games of Sevens rugby ever witnessed. England scored in the dying seconds of normal time to square things up, and Ben Gollings missed the conversion, meaning a tied game and extra time. So, five minutes a-side, 'golden point' as such, and the whole series on the line for Samoa. The game was intense, fast and lively, and after the 1st extra time period, we still had a stale mate, and so it was onto the second period, which was as tense as the first. The crowd was into it, the players into it, as well as the rest of the teams who weren't playing. After eight events across the globe, the series came down to this one game, and it was a heart stopping penalty drop goal at the end of the second period of extra time that gave Samoa the game and series title. The game had lasted 24 minutes, and the players were off their feet. It was an awesome experience to have been the referee, and will certainly be a lasting memory for me going forward.

So, after that intense game it was time to refocus on the job at hand, as I had been appointed to the final. We were lucky to have had some quality performance reviewers in Colin High and Jim Fleming, both ex-Test referees.

Australia, the most improved team this year, made their second final in two weeks, and after scoring within 10 seconds of the start, there were worries that Samoa had too little left after the epic semifinal, but it was not to be. Samoa came back immediately and displayed why they had been crowned series champions the game before, as they took the Edinburgh title convincingly.

I leave Haggis and Kilts behind and head for Masai Spears and the equator for the Safari Sevens this coming weekend along with Sindile Mayende, Jason Jaftha, Dennis Immelman and Pierre Oelofse. It should be another great weekend.