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Portia Woodman-Wickliffe celebrated before New Zealand 7s' ‘crazy’ weekend
The Black Ferns Sevens are bracing themselves for a “crazy” weekend after playing just a single game on Friday night ahead of two games on Saturday, and potentially as many as three to round out the weekend on the final day in Los Angeles.
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New Zealand, who won their first SVNS Series event of the season last Sunday in Vancouver, have waited all day to take the field at Dignity Health Sports Park and didn’t let up once given the chance to make their mark against world-class opposition.
After taking a moment to pause and celebrate Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, who is playing in her 50th international tournament for New Zealand, the Kiwis were red-hot against South Africa.
Teenage whiz Jorja Miller opened the scoring in just the first minute, and Michaela Blyde added another shortly after. It was all one-way traffic as they ran up a 41-5 win at the home of well-known American football side LA Galaxy.
“With our impact girls, or just our bench, just realising how to channel their energy in the right direction,” Woodman-Wickliffe told RugbyPass after coming off the field.
“But, man, they’re so eager, they’re so excited to get out on the field. It’s expected, we’ve waited all day for this damn game, it’s like a 15s game.
“So, to have those kind of nerves and expectations is quite hard but I think we did well.”
There’s a “weird” new challenge facing the 12 best women’s and men’s sevens sides this weekend. All teams will play just a single game under the lights on Friday.
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New Zealand will then face Brazil and Fiji on Saturday, and if they want to win it all in the City of Angels, they’ll need to play three games on Sunday.
You can still watch @nz_sevens at #HSBCSVNSLAX this weekend!
🎟️ https://t.co/Y9tG8g2LDe#HSBCSVNS pic.twitter.com/cpAf4y7ebM
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) March 2, 2024
“Oh my gosh, it’s so weird. With 15s you expect it, right? You’ve got to play 80 minutes,” Woodman-Wickliffe added.
“But with sevens, you’re waiting all day for a 14-minute game and now you go home and sleep. It’s crazy, but it’s nice, nice for the body.”
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Woodman-Wickliffe, who has scored the most tries out of any woman or man in Rugby World Cup 15s history, was celebrated with a special haka in the changerooms mere moments after speaking with this website.
The New Zealander joins the likes of Charlotte Caslick and Sharni Williams on the legendary list of women who have reached the incredible 50 tournaments marker in rugby sevens.
“It’s massive but I kind of just wanted to get that first game done,” Woodman-Wickliffe said. “Now I’m like, ‘Okay, it’s just a normal tournament, I don’t want it to be talked about.
“I think to put a performance out like that was pretty cool.
“Seeing it last week with Charlotte (Caslick), did Sharni (Smale) do it as well with her 50th tournament? That’s really awesome, I love that.
“I wanted to go in the front but with everyone else behind me, but it was cool.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Mad how this somehow contained absolutely zero information.
1 Go to commentsI’m looking forward to attending the Twickenham match, I don’t think it will have a bearing on the outcome of the grand prize itself but it will tell us more about each teams’ preparation and game plan. It’s hard to look past one of the big four (I’m including Canada) lifting the trophy in 2025 but sport is a curious thing, there will still be twists and turns in road ahead.
2 Go to commentsThe better side seems to be the losing side a lot these days. As far as narrative goes. Must be the big emergent culture of “participation awards” that have emerged in nanny states. ”It looked like New Zealand would take the game from there but lapses in execution let South Africa get back into the game. New Zealand’s goal kickers left five points out there, including a very make-able penalty on the stroke of half”. Sounds like a chronic problem… I wonder how the better team has lapses in concentration and execution? Or are those not important factors in the grand scheme of total performances? In 2023, the ABs at least didn’t give up a lead to lose. They just couldn’t execute to get the points and take the lead. This Baby AB result points to a choke - letting the game slip through your fingers. In the words of the great Ricky Bobby’s dad - “If you’re not 1st you’re last!” Loosely translated - if you didn’t win, you’re a loser.
9 Go to commentsWith Stuart Lancaster at the helm, Racing 92 looks more and more a mercenaries club like Toulon some years ago and they are not even performing despite all the money on offer.
4 Go to commentsCouple of things BS missed: wind was behind the Baby Blacks in the first half. Baby Boks got points from a scrum penalty in the final quarter against this ‘dominant pack’, and left three points on the park after a missed penalty.
9 Go to commentsSensible thoughts on this, Brett. Also worth considering we’ve sold 60k tickets for a game between the Rebels and the Lions next year. Got to be roughly $10m in ticket and game day revenue there.
5 Go to commentsUnsuccessful bitter ex Ulster player taking a pop shot at a side that isn't including his consistently poor mates up north
4 Go to commentsHis decision to play in France isn’t a petulant decision as this article suggests. I reckon that France is the perfect place to demonstrate that he can mix it in those battles Rassie references. It’s a good decision to try get into the squad. My personal opinion is that he wins more battles than he loses. I don’t have Rassie’s stats machine behind me, but Daymian’s is so strong moving through traffic and in the rip.
4 Go to commentsWow! Argie forward dominance is something I have not read in years….
1 Go to commentsIs the ‘snub’ really why he is leaving? He hasn’t said that has he? You don’t have to stay in SA to play for the Boks, so it’s not that he’s giving up on trying to get into the squad as the case would be in, say, England or New Zealand. Rassie made it clear that the early camps won’t feature all the players to play for the Boks this year so I can’t imagine Dayimani was too offended by being overlooked this time. It just seems like a sensationalist angle to take for a story without really knowing the player’s intentions.
4 Go to commentsWell, it is easily one of the best Irish sides, it’s just that their historical standard is very low.
4 Go to commentsThe Irish side is good. They have lost 2 games in the last 23 tests. In the last 12 months they have have a 60% win rate against the top 5 sides in the world. Over the same period south africa have a 67% win rate against the top 5 teams, and New Zealand are at 40%.
4 Go to commentsOnly 1247 days until RWC 2027 starts Bin Smuth🤣Can’t wait to see how unhinged you’re still gonna get between now & then
200 Go to commentsany chance either team will improve on their u20 world cup performances this time around? I assume both sides will be deeply disappointed with how things went.
6 Go to commentsAnother poor articles by a poor journo, nothing new from Ben, at least you are consistently bad lol, geez I will try and watch the match later, clearly Benny was only looking to one end of the pitch, hard to tell whom the Baby Blacks were playing if it wasn’t in the header 😄😄
9 Go to commentsNz should have won. I didn't watch the game, but the ref was at fault and the bounce of the ball and the Bokke used the Bomb squad and the Bokke slow the game down and the Bokke scrum. They should remove the scrum. The Bokke are to strong. Not fair. Nz should have won
9 Go to commentsProbably the worst article on a rugby match I have ever read
200 Go to commentsWho hurt this man.. LoL 😭
200 Go to commentsIt unfortunate for the Jaguares that they became formidable just as super rugby as we knew came to an end. However, the idea of bringing them back is nonsensical. While I enjoyed the Jaguares and the South African flavour of the comp, a selling point of this incarnation of super rugby is that all games are on a decent time for an Aussie audience.
5 Go to commentslol that’s your opinion Ben, All Blacks benefited from a forward pass try, SA played 77 min without a recognised hooker, missed a no try conversion and a penalty could have would have but didn’t
200 Go to comments