Dalibozek and Boston Kerapa were to have played for the NSW under-17s, but the representative team was a late withdrawal.

Instead the Wanderers winger and Nelson Bay No.8 returned to the Hawthorne Academy squad and starred.

“The key to sevens is retaining possession and cutting out errors,” coach Stu Pinkerton said. “While it was a very good team effort, we had some outstanding individual performances. Liam Dalibozek was player of the tournament. He is only 17 and would have scored eight tries against some really good Sydney teams. Boston was also great, Caleb Hopping was good, Caileb Gerrard, Jack Vincent.”

The Hawthorne Academy finished top of Pool D after wins over Southern Beaches (33-0), Central Coast (26-12) and Hamilton (38-7).

They accounted for Sydney club Easts in the quarter-final (21-14), before a thrilling 17-14 win over Norths in the semi-final in which Dalibozek scored after the bell. 

It is the first cup title the academy has won in five years of the program.  

“We targeted this tournament as our goal for the 20s and worked hard for seven weeks towards it,” Pinkerton said. “That was reflected in the result. We really peaked for the final and played intelligent sevens rugby. We have won plate and bowl titles before. We lost the final in the inaugural Newcastle 20s two years ago and lost the final at Southern Highlands as well.”

The Hawthorne Club and Maitland plan to make the tournament an annual event and add a women’s division.

Next for the Hawthorne Academy 20s is the Kiama Sevens in February where they will compete in the open division.

Meanwhile, the Australian women's rugby sevens team have made a flying start to their world title defence on the opening day of the world series.

The Australians held Mexico and Spain scoreless while racking up 53-0 and 40-0 wins respectively before rallying from 15 points down to beat Russia 21-15 in Colorado on Saturday.

Ellia Green grabbed two quick tries to get Australia back into the contest against Russia before star playmaker Charlotte Caslick put Dom Du Toit over for the winning try to ensure top spot in Pool A. Australia will meet the United States in the quarter-finals.

"The team worked hard across the three games and I was really impressed with our work rate today.

"To go through our first two games without conceding a try is a credit to the way we played and how we maintained possession," said Australian coach John Manenti. "Russia are a quality outfit and forced us into making mistakes early in the match which they capitalised on. I was impressed with how we fought our way back into the game and backed our systems against a very physical team."