Maddison Levi makes history, league winners crowned in Singapore

This weekend’s HSBC SVNS Series event in Singapore heads straight to the semi-finals on day two with a different competition format, sparking plenty of drama, chaos and history at the National Stadium on Saturday.

New Zealand’s Black Ferns Sevens were crowned the Women’s SVNS Series league winners for the second season in a row, and Los Pumas Sevens from Argentina also went back-to-back as they secured top spot on the overall ladder by winning their pool.

Reigning World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year Maddison Levi became the first, youngest and fastest Australian to score 200 tries on the SVNS Sreies. Australia remain on course to face New Zealand in the decider ahead of the semis.

LA’s Dignity Health Sports Park will host the World Championship and SVNS Series playoffs on May 3-4. Don’t miss out – buy your tickets HERE.

Australia will take on familiar foe Canada in the first women’s Cup Final on Sunday, while New Zealand continue to chase more SVNS Series history against France. The Black Ferns Sevens were officially crowned league winners on Saturday, capping off an incredible season.

New Zealand held a big lead on the overall women’s standings going into the final round-robin event of the 2024/25 campaign. All they needed results-wise to become league winners once again was to top their pool, and so they did with wins over China and Brazil.

“There’s definitely an element of relief but in a way that we’re so hard on ourselves to perform and to come out here in every tournament and put on a show for everybody and ourselves,” Black Ferns Sevens vice-captain Risi Pouri-Lane told RugbyPass.

“Everyone here, we work hard to be in those kind of moments so it is relief but also just an overwhelming sense of joy knowing that the whole squad that’s behind us that put us in a position to be here in those moments.

“For us, we’re our harshest critics. We always strive for more, we always want more, and we always thing that we haven’t actually reached our potential,” she added.

“There’s pros and cons to that because we’re so hard on ourselves but the pros to that is we’re always striving for greatness.”

In the men’s draw, Kenya made history by qualifying for their first SVNS Series semi-final since 2018 after beating both Ireland and France. The Shujaa last qualified for the final floor on the top-flight sevens circuit en route to the final at the Hong Kong Sevens all those years ago.

Nygel Pettersan Amaitsa scored Kenya’s first try of the weekend in their first match against the Irish, and the playmaker was once again back the centre of attention in the final play against France – stepping up and converting a 16^th minute penalty to win the clash 10-7.

Kenya will be full of confidence ahead of their next matcha against Spain, with the Europeans qualifying for yet another semi-final this season after two recording hard-fought wins over Uruguay and Australia in pool play.

Eduardo Lopez, Tobias Sainz-Trapaga and Jeremy Trevithick scored a try each as the Spaniards held on for a 21-12 win over Uruguay. Then, in one of the last matches on Saturday, Spain ran away with a 21-point over an Aussie side that went winless from their two starts.

In the other semi-final, fan favourites Fiji will take on Argentina in a blockbuster showdown. Fiji confirmed their place in the final four with an emphatic 36-5 win over the All Blacks Sevens in the final match on day one.

Fiji will need to be at their best in this semi-final it seems, with Argentina named league winners for the second season on the bounce after topping their pool. Los Pumas Sevens dropped a thriller to the Blitzboks 24-26 before bouncing back 19-12 against Great Britain.

That was enough to see Santi Gomez Cora’s side make history once again.

“It’s pretty awesome. We lost before to South Africa, it was a tough game,” Argentina’s Tobias Wade told RugbyPass.

“The team after the Olympics maintained completely the same guys so we tried to get an effort to train hard and try to repeat what we did last year.

“We worked really hard to do this again.

“The league is awesome, it’s a great prize for us because it is the whole year for us being competitive. It’s very important.

“Tomorrow we are playing semi-finals so we have to get our body recovered.”

Women’s semi-finals

Australia vs Canada at 1:45 pm local time

New Zealand vs France at 2:07 pm local time

Men’s semi-finals

Kenya vs Spain at 2:34 pm local time

Argentina vs Fiji at 2:56 pm local time