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All Blacks Sevens fall short to Spain as Black Ferns Sevens run riot
By Henry Lee
The final HSBC SVNS Series circuit before the SVNS World Championships is underway in Vancouver, where the two New Zealand sides have started their campaign with mixed results.
The All Blacks Sevens, led by assistant coach Willie Rickards for this tournament as Tomasi Cama couldn’t travel to Vancouver, started their circuit with a narrow two-point defeat against Spain.
For Cory Sweeney’s Black Ferns Sevens side, it was business as usual in their opening game of Pool A, smashing Great Britain, 35-5 at BC Place in Vancouver.
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The Black Ferns Sevens went from side to side to begin the encounter, before a cut-out pass from Jaymie Kolose put Braxton Sorensen-McGee through a massive gap in the Great Britain defence.
Despite Great Britain not winning a single game this season, they were the next to score, with a nice offload in midfield putting Heather Cowell under the posts.
Whatever was said at halftime by Sweeney worked a treat, with Kelsey Teneti going over shortly after the halftime interval.
Both Mahina Paul and Teneti then crossed before the final hooter, closing out their opening game of the weekend in style. FT: 35-5 to the Black Ferns Sevens.
Earlier in the day, the All Blacks Sevens also started with an impressive try, with Tone Ng Shiu throwing an audacious out-the-back offload to Kitona Vai down the left-hand touchline.
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Vai pinned his ears back, saw the space, and backed himself to score in the left corner to give the All Blacks Sevens a 5-0 lead early on against Spain.
Vai’s first try of the tournament was just over 12 hours after his younger brother and former SVNS speedster, Cody, scored on his starting debut for the Blues against the Crusaders at Eden Park.
Impressive young star Frank Vaenuku then took matters into his own hands, brushing off a couple of defenders before offloading it to Regan Ware.
Ware had no one in front of him and strolled in under the posts to extend their lead to 12-0 after six minutes.
But unfortunately for the Kiwis, that was the last time they would score, even with the 12-point lead at halftime in Vancouver.
Manu Moreno opened the scoring for Spain just after halftime, where the Spaniards took the opportunity from their own end.
Spain then recovered the resulting kickoff, launching another attack on the Kiwis with just under five minutes to go in the contest.
Ware then went from scoring down one end to being on the receiving end of a deadly right-footed step from Eduardo Lopez, which gave Spain the all-important 12-10 lead.
Spain managed to hold on, 12-10, over the All Blacks Sevens to kickstart their Vancouver campaign for 2026.
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