A thrilling finals day took place at the Singapore National Stadium on Sunday as the world watched both the men’s and women’s HSBC SVNS finals.
Through rain and (lots of) shine, it was a day of high drama, emotion and action with the New Zealand Black Ferns Sevens not only overcoming arch rivals Australia in the Singapore Sevens final, but also securing the Sevens series title overall.
With players including Dylan Collier, Brady Rush, and Andrew Knewstubb, New Zealand All Blacks Sevens took on Ireland edging them 17-14 to clinch their second consecutive Singapore SVNS title and making it a double delight for New Zealand on the day.
Argentina, despite placing fifth in Singapore, held on to clinch their first regular-season title in the global sevens series.
Really proud
New Zealand Black Ferns came out 31-21 victors against Australia in a straight shootout to be crowned SVNS League Winners 2024 and the first-ever women’s HSBC SVNS Singapore champions.
Australia could not hold back the Black Ferns performance, including a hat-trick from Michaela Blyde, their fourth successive tournament gold confirming their place at the top of the regular season standings.
Blyde said: “It means a lot! The beginning of the season was a little bit rocky for us, so we didn’t want to think too far ahead for this tournament but Singapore has just brought incredible vibes and to come away with the Singapore title and the league winners is really special.”
She continues,“We’ve just been taking it game by game, we wanted to make sure that we treated every game like it was our last and I think we did do that. There were some times when we were inconsistent and challenged, but we were able to turn that around and gain the momentum back. To sum it up, I’m really proud.”
Grand final
After Sunday’s final, the eight men’s and women’s teams who will contest the Grand Final are now confirmed. The men’s competition will involve Argentina, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, France, Fiji, South Africa and Great Britain, while the USA, Spain, Samoa and Canada will contest the promotion and relegation competition. The women’s Grand Final teams are New Zealand, Australia, France, USA, Canada, Fiji, Ireland and Great Britain.
One thing’s for sure, the New Zealand rugby teams are going to be a black force to be reckoned with at the Olympics in July!
