The Black Ferns Sevens team had a tough test against Australia moments ago in the final of the Canada leg of the HSBC Seven but they did so with a 19-12 victory to claim their fourth consecutive gold over their trans-Tasman rivals.
It's all thanks to Sarah Hirini (Ngāti Kahungunu), Stacey Fluhler (Ngāi Tūhoe), and Jorja Miller scoring tries and Tyla Nathan-Wong (Ngāpuhi) converting two of them.
Australia's Madison Ashby and Charlotte Caslick were the two try scorers for their side, Caslick's try coming in at the 11th minute to try to push her team to keep fighting. In the end, the Black Ferns were crowned winners for the fourth time this tournament.
That comes after they comfortably defeated France 36-7 in the semi-final.
Meanwhile, the All Blacks Sevens wrapped up their match against USA before 1pm today, claiming fifth place for the Canada part of the series with a dominant 50-7 display.
Joe Webber (Ngāti Ranginui, Waikato) was instrumental with a hat trick of tries, alongside Ngarohi McGarvey-Black’s (Tūhoe) three conversions and one try, Akulla Rokolisoa’s two conversions and singles from Leroy Carter, Moses Leo, Roderick Solo and Fehi Fineanganofo.
Though both of New Zealand’s teams are at the top of their respective tournament leaderboards, it’s the second time this season that the All Blacks Sevens have not made a tournament final, the first being in Hong Kong last year.
Lost to Australia
Their fifth-place match came after losing their quarter-final against Australia yesterday, 7-17.
The men have won gold in Sydney and Los Angeles, bronze in Dubai and two silvers in Cape Town and Hamilton.
For the women’s team, the well-oiled machine has only had one close match, out of their five wins, against hosts Canada 10-5 in the quarter-finals. Altogether beofre today’s final, they’ve scored 173 points in total and had 26 scored against them – their biggest win being 60-0 against Colombia.
Michaela Blyde has been gliding across the try line the most for her team, with 38 to her name throughout the entire tournament so far.
