Another title for NZ women
New Zealand’s magnificent women’s sevens rugby team remains on the top of the world after notching yet another title.
The women in black beat Canada 33-7 in the Sydney final on Sunday for a fourth successive title, equalling their best run in a World Series campaign.
They faced a confident Canada in the decider after they thrashed Australia 34-0 in the other semifinal, but New Zealand closed it out in clinical fashion at Bankwest Stadium to stretch their winning streak to 19 matches.
‘‘It’s just massive. We’ve been working pretty hard to go back-toback and to do it twice this season is massive,’’ captain Sarah Hirini said.
‘‘I’m just so happy, I can’t believe we won the tournament. I’m speechless.’’
Tyla Nathan-Wong was outstanding and scored the first try of the final after handling three times in a sweeping movement.
After Canada speedster Charity Williams hit back, New Zealand’s Gayle Broughton produced the match-turner when she spun from a standing start and raced 70m to make it 14-7 at the break.
It was all New Zealand in the second half as tries from Niall Williams – from a cutback with Nathan-Wong – Theresa Fitzpatrick and Alena Saili blew the margin out.
New Zealand made the decider with a four-try haul from Stacey Fluhler in a comfortable 24-7 semifinal win over France.
They opened the scoring midway through the first half when Nathan-Wong took off from a quick tap, before finding Fluhler on the outside.
Nathan-Wong’s conversion saw her become the first Kiwi woman to notch 1000 points on the series (she only trails Canada’s Ghislaine Landry).
The French hit back a couple of minutes later through a stunning solo effort from Lina Guerin, but New Zealand took a 12-7 lead to halftime, when, after the siren, they went hot on attack and after Nathan-Wong was pulled down just short of the line, the ball was sent to Fluhler to bag her second.
The second half saw New Zealand stamp their dominance, and a couple of minutes in Fluhler raced away for a hat-trick.
If that hadn’t sealed the contest then she had time for more, as Michaela Blyde kicked ahead and the ball once again found Fluhler out on the right flank, for the 24-year-old to notch a remarkable fourth try.
Earlier in the day, New Zealand had been in a spot of bother in their crucial final pool match against England, trailing 12-7 at halftime, before they powered to a 26-12 victory to ensure a semifinal spot, following opening-day wins over Japan (28-0) and Russia (22-12).
Meanwhile, the New Zealand men’s team had to settle for a fifth-placed finish.
With the Sydney event mirroring Hamilton the previous weekend in featuring a cut-throat no-quarterfinals format, the Kiwis started well on Saturday with a 54-5 thrashing of Wales, but their 26-5 defeat to Fiji later that night virtually ended their hopes of topping the pool and advancing to the semifinals.
They had to hope for the improbable in Fiji suffering a loss to Wales in their final pool game on Sunday, however Fiji duly romped to a 55-0 result.
New Zealand beat Kenya 19-5 to put them into the fifth-place playoff match against Australia, which they took out 24-7.
New Zealand remain on top of the series standings, ahead of the next round in Los Angeles in a month’s time.
Fiji won the Sydney title for the first time by beating South Africa 12-10 in the final.