The third round of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series took place in Sydney this past weekend. After three enthralling days of rugby, a box office match-up set the stage for an incredible HSBC Player of the Final performance by Australia’s Lachlan Anderson.

The imposing forward played the game of his life in Sydney and it just so happened to be in front of a home crowd playing for a gold medal in a Cup final. For all 14 minutes, he effortlessly claimed ball in the air while doggedly contested the contact area in defence. This was most notable in his try-saving tackle in the later moments of the first half. Chasing back 60 metres in pursuit of the ever-influential Rosko Specman, the deceptively quick Australian, went full superman to make a tackle he had no right to make. This was just one of the 37 tackles he made over the course of the three days.

“It means a lot to me to win player of the final and it’s great to get recognition like that but just for the boys to get the reward as a team for all the hard work that’s the most important,” said Anderson. “I’m pretty speechless to be honest, we’ve talked about this for a long time, we put the pieces in place and so to get a reward like that out there tonight, the boys really deserve it.”

In his side’s 29-0 win over South Africa, their first title since Tokyo 2012, Anderson showed that he’s a real star for the future. His outstanding defence combined with his hard line running adds another dimension to his sides attack which make Australia a tough team to beat.

The next round of the series takes place in Hamilton on 3-4 February.