‘Sisters’ set to sizzle at home for the first time
The Black Ferns sevens will play at home for the first time today during the New Zealand leg of the World Series in Hamilton.
The “Sevens Sisters” will take on Sevens World Cup runners-up France, China and England in the new Fast Four tournament at FMG Stadium Waikato.
Black Ferns veteran Ruby Tui said although the tournament was not yet officially part of the world circuit, it still meant a lot to each of the women who had been selected to play.
“I’ve been in this programme for eight years now and we’ve never had the opportunity to wear the Black Ferns jersey in front of a home crowd. This means so much to us.
“It’s right up there in the highlight of our year,” Tui told Radio Sport.
“We’ve all been looking forward to this Hamilton tournament. We’ve all been wanting to make this squad this weekend, so this is huge for us internally.
“There are so many levels of how special and how much mana this weekend has for our team and I honestly just can’t wait to get out there and do our families proud.”
Since the Women’s World Series was introduced in 2012, the Black Ferns have been at the forefront and will take the pitch this weekend with an impressive 39-game win streak — one they won’t be keen to give up in front of an excited home crowd.
The side are also fresh off a 2018 season when they claimed Commonwealth Games gold, as well as winning World Series tournaments in Japan, Canada, France, the United States and Dubai, along with successfully defending the Sevens World Cup in San Francisco last July.
However, Tui said they were wary of their rivals and looked forward to the challenge France promised to bring.
“The women’s game is still developing at the same insanely fast rate but we’re more looking at how teams defend this weekend.
“A lot of the teams are employing a shut defence, putting pressure on, dropping the sweep and demanding an excellent skillset from the other teams,” she said.
“If you want to see passion, if you want to see someone putting their body on the line, watch that French women’s team.
“There’s nobody better in the world that does it and we’re going to have to bring out an excellent skillset against that if we want to do well against them.”
“[China] really throw everything into their footy. They’re developing a lot, too, but we hope not too much this weekend.
“There’s four teams, we’re all here to prove a point and show the world what we’ve got.”
The Black Ferns Sevens kick off their Fast Four campaign this afternoon against England, before facing France.
The final round will be played tomorrow when the Black Ferns take on China to close the tournament.