ENGLAND sevens Head Coach Ben Ryan heaped praise on his side, as they beat Kenya to win the 2013 Hertz Sevens.
Having failed to reach a single Cup quarter-final in the opening three rounds of the 2012/13 HSBC Sevens World Series, England went unbeaten over the two days to lift their first Cup since the 2012 Dubai Sevens.
In a dramatic final, Sam Edgerley scored the winning try, as England also won their first title in New Zealand since 2009 - which was Ryan's first tournament win as coach.
"I am thrilled for the performance which I knew we had in us," said Ryan after the fulltime whistle.
"This ranks above 2009. That was my first tournament win, and I had some players in that side I now have long life friendships with.
"But here where we have come from and from what we have had to endure on and off the field, this is our number one. This is the start of 2013, and the journey for us."
Edgerley came off the bench to score the winning try and was delighted with his first Cup win in England colours.
"It is just fantastic, I am overwhelmed to be honest but I am the proudest man in the world," added Edgerley.
"We had a really good build-up to this, we didn't have the best start to the season, so we made a promise to ourselves, we made a promise to get out of it and we did. We said it was a man's test, and we were the men."