Ireland and Argentina squash Australia’s hopes of historic home SVNS double
Ireland and Argentina have ended Australia’s hopes of claiming their first SVNS ‘double’ on home soil since 2018 by defeating the hosts in the Cup finals at HBF Park on Saturday evening.
The hometown favourite’s women’s and men’s teams searched for their own slice of Australian rugby history in Perth after booking their places in their respective deciders.
With the crowd well and truly in the corner, and with both teams buzzing with a renewed sense of confidence on the back of that support, many on Australia’s west coast dared to dream.
HISTORY MADE! ☘️@Ireland7s win their first ever #HSBCSVNS title 🏆#HSBCSVNSPER pic.twitter.com/hgjEEnaEp8
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) January 28, 2024
Australia, who had beaten traditional sevens rivals New Zealand in a thrilling quarter-final on the tournament’s second day, were matched up with Ireland on the women’s side of the draw.
Led by captain Charlotte Caslick, the women in gold were met with a stunning cheer from the home crowd as they made their way onto the field at the Perth venue.
This was their moment, but Ireland had other plans.
Captain Caslick opened the scoring in the second minute, but Ireland’s Amee Leigh Murphy Crow cancelled that out with her own effort shortly after. The opposing teams traded try-scoring blows in the second half, too, as the hotly contested battle neared its final moments.
With the game clock ticking ever close to full-time, Ireland had their chance. They were awarded a scrum with a few minutes left and they ended up making the most of it.
Try-scoring hero Eve Higgins broke through the golden defensive line to secure Ireland’s first-ever Cup final title in the women’s side of the draw. History was made in Perth.
“Losing at home always hurts,” captain Caslick told reporters.
“I think the emotional toll and the lack of discipline really let us down. Regardless of the result, we know we have a lot to work on.”
The Australian women were hurting. Coach Tim Walsh, who spoke after Charlotte, was still speaking with reporters when the fireworks went off ahead of the men’s Cup final.
Australia had another opportunity to taste final glory in front of their home fans, but a menacing challenge awaited the men’s team.
Argentina have been the form team of the 2023/24 season so far. Led by try-scoring machine Marcos Moneta, Los Pumas Sevens took out the SVNS Cape Town final last month.
In that final at the Western Cape venue in South Africa, Argentina beat Australia. It was a chance to make amends for the Aussie, and an opportunity for the Argentinians to double down.
Moneta was the star once again. Two tries sank Australian hearts, while Grman Schulz and Matteo Graziano (two) helped the visitors record a commanding Cup final win.
The final score was 31-5.
“We try not to focus too much around results,” Manenti told reporters. “Especially here at home, it would’ve been easy to talk about winning, winning, winning.
“From where we were on Friday, the first game, to make the final was a real improvement from the boys. We want to keep growing.
“The end goal for the season is Paris. It would’ve been nice to win here, absolutely, but we’re not quite where we need to be and it’s important that we learn to be in that environment and we’re fighting for medals.
“I think this was the first time we’ve been in back-to-back finals since about 2015 which is a really good achievement for the boys.
“What I’m striving for as a group is consistency, so if we can put ourselves in that position to be competing for medals… the more exposure we can have to that, the better we’re going to be at playing under pressure.
“Argentina are a red hot side… I think they are, at the moment, they are a class ahead of the field and the rest of us are fighting hard… at the moment they’re in real control of where they’re at.
“We’re aspiring to knock them off and we’ll get them at some stage. We’ll wear them down and we’ll get them.
“But at the moment there’s a little bit of space between them and the field and that’s us included.”
Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments