England 31 New Zealand 26

England claimed the Emirates Airline London Sevens at Twickenham Stadium with a thrilling 31-26 victory over New Zealand sudden-death extra-time on Sunday evening.

In front of a record crowd for the London Sevens at a sun-kissed Twickenham, England staged a magnificent second-half comeback after trailing 19-0 at the interval to tries by New Zealand's Kurt Baker and Julian Savea (two).

Wing Uche Oduoza began the second half hit back with a try that was all about speed and strength, former Harlequins player Ben Gollings converting.

Then, when Micky Young dashed in for try number two, the crowd began to sense the possibility of New Zealand's lead being eroded.

A third try, this time by James Rodwell and the conversion by Gollings, levelled the scores at 19-19 and it was a case of which side could maintain composure.

New Zealand showed their winning instinct with a try from their experienced sevens campaigner Zar Lawrence converted by the reliable Tomasi Cama but, then, on came super sub Dan Norton to score for England, Gollings' conversion levelling the scores at 26-26.

And so to extra-time. In a tense three minutes, it was defences that were on top before England made the crucial breakthrough, with the winning try by Young of Newcastle Falcons and the England Saxons squad to seal the London Sevens for his country.

"We never gave up believing in ourselves even though we were 19-0 down at half time," said Wimbledon-born England coach Ben Ryan.

"We knew we had a mountain to climb, New Zealand had their tails up and we hadn't been making progress.

"In the second half we allowed ourselves to breathe a bit more in attack and tightened up our defence. Then we brought on Dan Norton and that was that.

"The problem for us in the first half is that we were not lying deep enough so we weren't running on to the ball at pace.

"This was a fantastic final and winning London was special and especially so in front of a record crowd.

"I think this event is now building and there is no reason why it couldn't become as popular as the Middlesex Sevens used to be.

"I can see 50,000 plus coming to Twickenham for this day next year.

"We can now go to Edinburgh for next weekend's final round with self-belief. It would be great to win at Murrayfield as we've never before achieved back-to-back wins."

Gollings' three conversions in the final took him to 2,000 career points in the IRB Sevens World Series, in which he is the all time top scorer ahead of Fiji's Waisale Serevi (1,310).

A record attendance for the Emirates Airline London Sevens of 63,500 watched the two days of action at Twickenham Stadium.

England Squad: Tom Biggs (Leeds Carnegie), Rob Vickerman (Leeds Carnegie), James Rodwell (Moseley RFC), Ollie Phillips (Newcastle Falcons), Kevin Barrett (Exeter Chiefs), Ben Gollings (Gold Coast), Chris Cracknell (Exeter Chiefs), Micky Young (Newcastle Falcons), Dan Norton (Moseley RFC), Greg Barden (Royal Navy), Uche Oduoza (Unattached), Neil Starling (Northampton Saints).