Hirini braces for grim Olympic outlook
Injured Black Ferns sevens captain Sarah Hirini faces a nervous wait to determine if she will miss next year’s Paris Olympics.
The 30-year-old has sported a large knee brace after suffering an injury to her right knee on the opening day of last weekend’s Dubai Sevens, the first leg of the new World Series.
She has been ruled out of this weekend’s tournament in Cape Town and is returning home for further medical assessments.
The severity of her injury is not clear, but her tearful reaction as she was farewelled by her team-mates at the airport suggested she fears the worst.
“I have had scans and am heading to back to Aotearoa to talk through my options with our medical team,” Hirini said in an Instagram post, with a picture of her knee brace and crutches.
A New Zealand Rugby spokesperson said Hirini was having further medicals later this week.
She is a talismanic figure for the Black Ferns sevens and would be a major loss in the Olympics. The Black Ferns sevens will defend their Olympic gold in Paris next July.
Hirini is one of women’s rugby’s most decorated players, winning every major honour, including World Cup wins in sevens and 15s and Commonwealth Games and Olympic titles.
She was one of the flagbearers for the New Zealand team at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and led her side to gold.
Returning from sevens to 15s, she played as a loose forward last year when the Black Ferns won their sixth Rugby World Cup title in New Zealand. Tysha Ikenasio has replaced her in the travelling squad for this weekend’s Cape Town Sevens.
In Dubai, Hirini had kept New Zealand’s remarkable unbeaten record alive with a late try to give them victory over South Africa. She was later injured and the Black Ferns sevens’ 41-match winning run came to an end in the women’s final on Monday (NZ time), losing 26-19 to Australia.
The All Blacks men’s sevens side has also had to make an injury replacement for the South African leg of the series. Regan Ware was concussed during the pool
stageandhasbeenreplacedbyXavierTitoHarris after New Zealand claimed the bronze medal in Dubai with a 12-7 victory over Fiji.