Jonah Lomu was the star of the tournament in 2001

Late in January 2001, in the Argentina's beach resort of Mar del Plata, the third Rugby World Cup Sevens found its home.

For the first time the eight quarter finalists from the previous tournament - Fiji, South Africa, Samoa, New Zealand, England, Australia, France, Korea and Argentina - qualified automatically with the host nation, while the other 15 places were contested at eight qualifying tournaments involving a record 91 nations.

Among these qualifiers were four newcomers to the RWC Sevens stage: Kenya, Chile, Russia and Georgia, the latter making history as the country's first national team to reach a major tournament only three years after taking up the sport.

There was no place though for Scotland, the inventors of the sevens game, with the remaining places going to Ireland, Cook Islands, Chinese Taipei, Canada, Zimbabwe, Japan, Spain, Wales, Portugal, Hong Kong and the USA.

The 24 nations were divided into four pools of six with the top two in each progressing to the Melrose Cup quarter finals, the next two to the Plate competition and the bottom two into the Bowl competition.

Rush loss a blow for New Zealand

Defending champions Fiji, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia topped their respective pools and were joined in the Melrose Cup last eight by runners-up Argentina, Canada, England and Samoa.

However, not all enjoyed an easy passage. England, the inaugural champions in 1993, lost two of their five games and would have missed out had Spain not lost to Japan after a last minute try by Daisuke Ohata, while Canada only edged Chinese Taipei on points difference in Pool C.

Australia looked impressive, as had Fiji with Rupeni Caucau announcing his arrival on the world stage with seven tries in two games, while New Zealand suffered a huge blow when inspirational captain Eric Rush broke his leg against England.

Rush flew home to Auckland for surgery on the career-threatening injury, but not before his team mates had given him a Maori send-off, performing the haka in his honour. With Rush absent a certain Jonah Lomu filled in and New Zealand still managed to reach the semi finals along with Australia, Fiji, and Argentina.

Spurred on by a passionate home crowd, Argentina had provided the upset of the quarter finals by recovering from a slow start to beat South Africa 14-12. However they were unable to repeat these heroics against an inspired New Zealand and lost 31-7.

Lomu: The unstoppable force

The other semi-final was a much closer affair with Fiji racing into a 14-0 lead only for Australia to hit back and capitalise on an injury to Marika Vunibaka to claim a first victory over their rivals for two years.

A new champion was therefore guaranteed and unfortunately for Australia - the only one of the leading nations not to call up their big names - it was not to be them as they suffered another final loss, following the loss to England eight years earlier.

Australia simply had no answer to one man: Jonah Lomu. The powerful New Zealand wing scored three of his side's five tries in the 31-12 final victory to deservedly walk away with the 'Man of the Match' honour.

"Everybody felt very bad when Eric left the team, but everybody also found new motivation to win the title," coach Gordon Tietjens admitted afterwards. "He was part of this squad. "He played five games in the tournament, so he is one of our sevens world champions."

Russia overcame neighbours Georgia 24-12 to win the Plate final - thereby ensuring they were the highest ranked Europeans behind former champions England - while Chile showed great promise in narrowly beating Portugal 21-19 in the Bowl final.