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Rivalry renewed: Who New Zealand and Australia face at SVNS LAX
New Zealand and Australia will renew their epic sporting rivalry once again when the neighbours separated by ‘the ditch’ meet at the upcoming SVNS Series leg in Los Angeles.
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The two men’s teams have met on the sevens track once before this season with the All Blacks Sevens dismantling the Aussie 7s 35-5 in Cape Town a few months ago.
But Australia went on to qualify for the Cape Town final that weekend and backed that up with another second-place finish at their home event in Perth at the end of January.
As for the All Blacks Sevens, they’ll go into SVNS LAX with plenty of confidence after their best finish at a tournament this season.
New Zealand made their first final of the 2023/24 campaign at Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium on Sunday evening.
While they didn’t win, with Argentina extending their lead on the SVNS Series standings to 24 points, it was still a supremely successful weekend for the men in black as they continue to build ahead of the Series’ Grand Final in Madrid and the Paris Olympics.
The same can be said for New Zealand’s women’s side, too, with the Black Ferns Sevens ending their Cup final drought this season with a triumphant win over France in Vancouver.
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They were sensational on their road to glory. New Zealand had a +101 points differential in pool play and only conceded seven points across their quarter and semi-final victories.
After finishing fifth in Perth last month – a result which Portia Woodman-Wickliffe described as an “eye-opener” – the Kiwis bounced back and will return home to Aotearoa with some silverware.
“We had the likes of Sarah Hirini go out this year with her knee, Stacey (Waaka), Kelly Brazier, but the fact that we’ve gone through some moments that have been really quite hard in the past in terms of the rugby game, coming fifth in Perth was a real eye-opener for us,” Woodman-Wickliffe told RugbyPass.
“But to come out here, we’ve got some really new girls, we took out all the excess stuff that didn’t need to be there and made the game simple: get the ball wide, create space and play from there.
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“Our game’s not perfect, we’ve got a long way to go,” she added.
“Australia is always the pinnacle but France is such a massive side. They’re strong, they’re physical, they bring a different game that no one else does.
“Looking forward to the next tournament. We’ve got some girls that are coming back from injuries. It’s going to be exciting.
“But the ultimate is the Olympics at the end of this year so we want to be peaking towards that.”
But the New Zealanders still have a job to do in LA and they’ll be hungry to go back-to-back after being drawn in a favourable pool ahead of their trip to the U.S-of-A.
The Black Ferns Sevens have been drawn in a pool along with Brazil and South Africa. Those two teams are currently in the bottom four on the overall Series standings. New Zealand will also look to get the better of an always-dangerous Fiji side.
Australia, who were upset in the Vancouver semi-finals by France, will get their shot at revenge after being drawn in the same pool as Les Bleues Sevens for Los Angeles. But Australia’s mission for payback doesn’t stop there with the women in gold also set to play Ireland for the first time since last month’s Perth final.
The SVNS Series heads to Los Angeles next from March 1 to 3 and tickets can be bought HERE.
SVNS Los Angeles
Men’s pools
Pool A: Argentina, Ireland, South Africa, Spain
Pool B: Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, United States of America
Pool C: Canada, Fiji, France, Great Britain
Women’s pools
Pool A: Brazil, Fiji, New Zealand, South Africa
Pool B: Australia, France, Ireland, Japan
Pool C: Canada, Great Britain, Spain, United States of America
Comments on RugbyPass
Dickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“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.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 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.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 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 comments