‘Holy moley, the hard work has paid off’
What does it look like when hard work pays off?
For the Black Ferns Sevens team, it was the medals around their necks, and the World Cup trophy, sitting in captain Sarah Goss’ luggage cart.
The Sevens Sisters arrived home from San Francisco yesterday, less than 48 hours after beating France in the final defending the title they won in 2013. Michaela Blyde scored a hat-trick in that 29-0 win and said it was ‘‘a surreal feeling’’ being world champions.
"I’ve come home and it doesn’t still really feel like we’ve done what we’ve done. Just having a glance at the medal and at the World Cup as well, it brings back the memories of being on the field.
‘‘We’ve been preparing for this tournament for a very, very long time and we only had one goal and that was to win.
‘‘Now that we’ve done it, it’s like holy moley, the hard work we’ve done back at home has really paid off.’’
Captain Sarah Goss – who won the Mark of Excellence award at the tournament – was there in 2013 and said it felt amazing winning back-to-back titles. With four wins at the World Cup, the Black Ferns Sevens team have won 27 matches in a row, a run that stretches back to January 29, when they lost to hosts Australia in the Sydney Sevens final – their only loss in 33 outings in 2018, where they also won Commonwealth Games gold.