Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

New Australia captain’s inspiring message after Dubai Sevens triumph

Australia's players celebrate on the podium after winning the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series women's final rugby match between Australia and New Zealand at the Sevens Stadium in Dubai on December 1, 2024. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP) (Photo by FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images)

New Australia women’s sevens captain Isabella Nasser insisted with a smile that “the best is yet to come” for the team after their title triumph at the Dubai Sevens. Australia were practically flawless throughout the event, which included a tight 28-24 win over New Zealand in the Final.

ADVERTISEMENT

From 2021 to 2023, the Aussies won four consecutive Cup Finals at the HSBC SVNS Stop in the UAE, which saw them take on New Zealand in the big dance twice. As the women in gold looked to stretch their era of dominance into a fifth tournament, they’d need to beat their fierce rivals again.

Defending overall SVNS Series champions Australia started the 2025 season with an utterly relentless 52-nil win over China before claiming big wins over Fiji and Ireland. They only conceded 12 points across those three games as they finished with +106 points differential.

Video Spacer

Spiff Sedrick talks us through that incredible Olympic Bronze winning try | RPTV

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 5:02
Loaded: 3.28%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 5:02
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
    • en (Main), selected
    Video Spacer

    Spiff Sedrick talks us through that incredible Olympic Bronze winning try | RPTV

    Alex Sedrick talks Finn Morton through the moment the USA Women’s rugby team won bronze at the Paris Olympics. Watch comprehensive Women’s rugby coverage on RugbyPass TV

    Watch now

    The Australians continued their series of statement performances with a 39-nil demolition of Olympic medallists Canada in the quarters and a 35-7 win over Great Britain in their semi-final. But their biggest challenge was yet to come after New Zealand’s 14-point win over France.

    Faith Nathan and Teagan Levi scored early tries for Australia, but the Black Ferns Sevens struck back through Jorja Miller and Risi Pouri-Lane. Captain Nasser scored just before the half-time break, but the Kiwis would soon take the lead after two quick tries during the second term.

    In a blockbuster Cup Final that lived up to the hype, try-scoring phenomenon Maddison Levi – who scored a women’s SVNS Series record 15 five-pointers across the two-day event – intercepted a Jazmin Felix-Hotham pass to score what ended up being the match-winner with two minutes left.

    “It’s pretty incredible, I’m sort of lost for words with how I feel right now. I’m on the verge of tears but also laughing and so happy, so proud of the girls and how they showed up tonight and the rest of the tournament,” Nasser, who was announced last week as the team’s new captain, said on the RugbyPass TV broadcast.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    “We just have such a tight-knit group, The young ones really showed up today, and I’m sure they will the rest of the season. We’ve got such a young, mature group so the best is yet to come so I’m super excited.

    “The Black Ferns are always such a hard team to verse; they always show up and it’s always such a good rivalry. They’re such good sport and they’re my favourite team to verse both on and off the field.

    Related

    “I’m really, really proud of my girls and also such a great game with the Black Ferns.”

    It’s a perfect start to the new SVNS Series season as the reigning champions look to set the tone early for what they hope is another ascent to the top of the sevens world. Australia took a maximum of 20 points out of the event as they sit on top of the women’s standings after round one.

    As for Australia’s men’s side, they weren’t quite as successful as they were left to settle for seventh after bowing out in the quarters. They fell to last season’s League Winners Argentina 22-20, with a missed conversion proving the difference between a loss and golden point.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    But with Henry Paterson leading the way, the Aussies rallied in their final match of the tournament against a Great Britain outfit that looks to be growing in confidence. Henry Palmer scored the opener for Australia before GB piled on 12 unanswered points to round out the half.

    2024 Australia U20 backrower Aden Ekanayake scored about 15 seconds into the second half to help the men’s team reduce the deficit. In the end, Paterson’s try in the 13th minute was a differencemaker as they emerged victorious 17-12.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Boks Office | Episode 39 | The Investec Champions Cup is back

    Argentina v France | HSBC SVNS Hong Kong 2025 | Men's Match Highlights

    New Zealand v Australia | HSBC SVNS Hong Kong 2025 | Women's Match Highlights

    Tokyo Sungoliath vs Shizuoka BlueRevs | Japan Rugby League One 2024/25 | Full Match Replay

    Reds vs Force | Super Rugby W 2025 | Full Match Replay

    The Rise of Kenya | The Report

    New Zealand in Hong Kong | Brady Rush | Sevens Wonders | Episode 4

    The Fixture: How This Rugby Rivalry Has Lasted 59 Years

    Trending on RugbyPass

    Comments

    0 Comments
    Be the first to comment...

    Join free and tell us what you really think!

    Sign up for free
    ADVERTISEMENT

    Latest Features

    Comments on RugbyPass

    J
    JW 57 minutes ago
    'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

    Well a) poor French results doesn’t seem to effect the situation much. In fact one of the reasons given for this selection policy is that the French don’t tune in for foreign rugby content on the other side of the world, at a time when theyre not having their vino. So who would know the results? And b) this is the crux of the matter, they are legally abided to play them as part of WRs tier 1 reciprocal tours programme. The only real choice for the SH team is to treat it the same, which is fine when teams are happy to do that, but the AB’s have a totally anthesis policy/mentality so would never use the games in the same way.


    So alligned with b) the only real option is to complain to those in control. I suspect that’s why weve seen France reneging on the practice, and you can only be left to think that if they hadn’t reneged, WR would have done something more drastic about it. Which of course would mean not just telling them to bugger off when they want to tour, it’s no one playing them (from t1 at least) at all (assuming they have no interest in scheduling match’s outside the windows, like Ireland and NZ are doing).


    Then of course that means no involvement of France in the Nations Championship. Which means they are automatically the last ranked team in 6N to qualify, so the actual worst team in 6N gets to compete in it, making a mockery of the promotion and relegation WR wanted to happen between T1 and T2 for qualifying purposes. Yup, b) is just something nobody wants to happen. Well done FFR and LNR for making the tour work instead (how well is yet to be seen).

    112 Go to comments
    TRENDING
    TRENDING ‘Current form doesn’t matter’: Commentator on potential All Blacks midfield ‘Current form doesn’t matter’ in All Blacks race
    Search