Olympic Gold Medalist weighs in on Dubai Sevens heartbreak

Olympic Gold Medalist Shiray Kaka has reacted to the Black Ferns Sevens heartbreak loss last weekend in Dubai on the first leg of the HSBC SVNS Series. 

The Black Ferns sevens lost to Australia 28-24 in the final of the Dubai SVNS, after going unbeaten throughout the tournament before the loss. 

Head coach Cory Sweeney and the team did not have long to dwell on last weekend’s result, as the second leg of the series is currently being played in Cape Town.

Kaka, who’s currently recovering from her third ACL surgery in her rugby career that’s earned her 133 appearances for the Kiwi sevens side, has been spending most of her weeks in the gym, rehabbing ahead of a return in the future. 

“I am nine weeks into ACL surgery recovery at the moment. So yeah, just the third time lucky doing that one. It’s a little bit of a different journey this time,” Kaka told the official All Blacks YouTube channel in a podcast.

“I’m not rushing back. I’m just making sure that my body’s all good to go. There are a lot of months until I can play again. But yeah, we’ll just see how it goes.”

The Olympic gold medalist who was part of the 2020 Tokyo Black Ferns sevens team says that the loss last weekend against Australia was disappointing, but she’s more interested in how they react as a team this week.

“I’ve just been actually checking in with them and making sure, my big thing after a loss is how the team comes together, how they gel, how they are going off the field,” Kaka said to SportsNation’s morning show with Scotty & Izzy.

After a tight defeat to arch-sevens rivals Australia, the Black Ferns Sevens team will be out for revenge in Cape Town, especially after both teams topped their respective pools convincingly on day one. 

The Black Ferns comfortably breezed past China, 40-10 after tries from new Sevens star Katelyn Vahaakolo, Dhys Faleafaga, Mahina Paul and Risi Pouri-Lane.

The Kiwi’s second game of the day against Japan was a closer contest, ending 22-12 in a seven-try contest.

With the Semi-Finals for the Black Ferns Sevens team against France at 12:12 AM NZT on Monday morning, the star-studded lineup gets the chance to face either Australia in a rematch of last week’s final or a USA side who topped group Pool D that featured Great Britain and Fiji.

Kaka tells Scotty Stevenson that she believes the performance of the Black Ferns Sevens will fall into place if the connection of the team is still positive. 

“That’s my main focus whenever I talk to them. And it’s going well, which is the biggest thing for me, and then rugby will flow off it. So I’m hearing good things from them. I’m hearing the girls are still tied.”

“I’m hearing they’ve got the connection.”