Fiji needed to finish in fifth place or higher at the London Sevens to ensure that they would win the series ahead of England, but won the tournament handily with 54–14 victory over Samoa in the final.

Where tie-breakers were required, the head-to-head result between the tied teams was used, followed by the difference in points scored during tournament play.

Whether playing with 16 or 24 teams, however, only the top 8 sides from the pool stage could advance to the championship quarterfinals to compete for the tournament title.

For a standard 16-team event, four trophies were contested during the knockout stage – in descending order of prestige: the Cup (whose winner became the tournament champion), Plate, Bowl and Shield.

Source: rugby7.com (archived) Notes: Light blue line on the left indicates a core team eligible to participate in all events of the series.

William Ryder scored a try near the end to draw Fiji level, with the winning points provided by a conversion from Sevens legend and player-coach Waisale Serevi.

[2] This event made it clear to many observers that for the first time in the history of the World Sevens Series, New Zealand would not be the overall winner.

[4] The 30th edition of arguably the biggest event in the Sevens version of the game saw what Planet-Rugby.com called an "absolutely mesmerising" final.

Serevi's men stormed back in the second half to level the score, and eventually took the lead on a Ryder try.

New Zealand were officially eliminated from contention for the series crown, crashing out in the Cup quarterfinals to Argentina and losing in the Plate semifinals to Samoa.

[6] Going into Paris, second-place England knew they had to finish at least two spots ahead of Fiji in one of the remaining two tournaments to win the overall title.

England caught a major break when the hosts, France, stunned Fiji 22–21 in the Cup quarterfinals, knocking them into the Plate competition.

In the final, they avenged a loss to Samoa in pool play, with Rayno Benjamin and Danwell Dimas scoring two tries apiece.

Although England would lose the day's final match 24–19 to Australia, they topped the pool on points difference, with Kenya finishing second.