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'Hit out of my hands': Black Fern Jorja Miller on try blunder in Vancouver
It’s easy to forget that Jorja Miller is only a teenager. The Black Ferns Sevens star having shown maturity and skill well beyond her years during this season’s World Series.
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Heralded as a star of the future, the former national dance champion has taken the Women’s World Series by storm – and she’s far from done.
At just 19 years of age, Miller has already become a core part of the Black Ferns’ success on this season’s circuit.
Miller is getting better every time she dons the black jersey, but has had to learn some tough lessons along the way.
Playing in the Cup final against fierce rivals Australia in Vancouver last month, the teenager bombed a certain try midway through the first half.
The New Zealander split defenders Sariah Paki and Teagan Levi, and ran behind the posts for what appeared to be the first points of the decider – but clearly she was unaware that Maddison Levi was hot on her heels.
Levi, who has a background in Australian Rules Football, managed to punch the ball out of Miller’s hands. Captain Sarah Hirini was able to score about 10 seconds later, so really there was no damage done.
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For such a young talent, moments like this can either make or break athletes. But Miller couldn’t help but laugh as she reflected on the blunder last weekend in Hong Kong China.
“Honestly I don’t even know what happened,” Miller told RugbyPass at Hong Kong Stadium.
“All I heard was Stacey go. ‘Put the ball down’ and I turned around was like, ‘What?’
“Then the ball got hit out of my hands but lucky enough the girls were there and then we scored straight away.”
Miller has only played 36 matches for the Black Ferns Sevens so far, and has 15 tries to her name.
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While the teenager is expected to have a brilliant future in the game, she’s already created history in the coveted black jersey.
Playing at last weekend’s Hong Kong Sevens, Miller was part of the first ever Women’s World Series stop at the sports traditional home.
The Black Ferns didn’t concede any points throughout the pool stages, and charged into the final against Australia.
Miller started for the World Series leaders, and played a crucial role in their history-making 19-12 win over their arch rivals.
“The girls have worked really hard for this and to get one over the Aussies again, it’s pretty special,” she said.
“Both teams know that it’s always going to be a tough match and we always fight it out until the end which is really special.
“We talked about it during the week, the team that came here in 2000 and now to be able to do this and win it, it’s been awesome.”
The Black Ferns Sevens are on the cusp of World Series glory. Having won five of six tournaments on this season’s circuit, the New Zealanders are expected to wrap up the overall title in Toulouse next month.
Comments on RugbyPass
What ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
128 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
128 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
128 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
128 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
128 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
128 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
128 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
128 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
128 Go to commentsHo hum.
128 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
128 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
128 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
128 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
128 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
128 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
128 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
128 Go to comments