Australian Women Make It 5 In a Row and Fiji Men Win First Emirates Dubai 7s Since 2015

rugbyasia247 Posted On December 2, 2024

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The SVNS 2024-2025 season saw the Australia women and Fiji men crowned champions at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai as the upsets continued into the second and final day of the Emirates Dubai 7s 2024. The Japanese women ended up in 7th while the China women were 10th overall in the season opener.

Fiji beat Spain 19-5 to win men’s gold, as Spain reached their first-ever SVNS final after beating NZ twice throughout the weekend. The Australia women beat fierce rivals New Zealand 28-24 as Maddison Levi broke the tournament try-scoring record held by now-retired Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, and Charlotte Caslick put in a player of the final performance. Levi has now scored in 25 consecutive matches and scored 15 tries at The Sevens Stadium.

Photo Credit – World Rugby

With the HSBC SVNS standings set to be hotly contested across this slightly shorter season, Argentina and France won men’s and women’s bronze medals respectively – beating NZ and GB, after both overcame losses early on.

Former Olympic gold medalist with Fiji and former China women’s coach, Fiji Men’s Head Coach Osea Kolinisau said; “It’s been a long time coming. I’m so happy for the boys. I’m so happy that we’ve got the monkey off our back now.”

He was the captain of Fiji the last time they won the title back in 2015 in Dubai and Kolinisau added, “We want to be consistent. We’ve worked really hard these last six months. We were disappointed at the Olympics. I told the boys hard work pays off and it paid off here.”

Australia’s new captain Isabella Nasser was happy with the win: “I’m sort of lost for words. I’m proud of the girls. We have such a tight-knit group – the young ones really showed up today and I’m sure they will for the rest of the season. The best is yet to come. The Black Ferns are always such a hard team [to play]. They always show up and we have such a good rivalry.”

Photo Credit- World Rugby – The Spain men reahed their first SVNS final

The SA men, the Blitzboks, for the first time in six years were not victors in Dubai and finished 6th overall, following losses to Kenya, NZ, and France this weekend.

Springbok Sevens head coach Philip Snyman was not pleased with his team’s sixth place, saying “We gave away so much possession, it is almost unreal. We were the team with the least possession all tournament and that is already unacceptable, but to then also give the ball away when we have it, even more so. Sadly in both matches against New Zealand and France, we had the ball to close out the game only to give it to the opponents, who then scored from that and defeated us. That is not acceptable.”

In so many unpredictable matches, the surprise results were due to more than 90 debutant players being selected across the 12 men’s and 12 women’s squads in Dubai.

New USA Women’s co-captain Alena Olsen told us; “It’s brought me a lot of joy to see how many new players were able to step on the field for the first time and score a try for the first time, and just all of these things for the first time. It’s been a happy, emotional time being able to see those things in Dubai.”

Japan Sakura and China Women 7s – Dubai 7s 2024

Photo Credit- World Rugby

The Japanese women played the first game on Sunday after having gotten the season underway on Saturday too. They couldn’t cope with GB in the Cup quarterfinal and went down 26-0 to set up a 7th-place playoff with Canada, who they had trashed the day before in the pool stages.

In the Canada matchup, Mei Ohtani, Hanako Utsumi and Chiaki Saegusa scored in a tight game which saw them just edge past the Olympic bronze medalists 24-22 (twice coming from behind) for a good opening weekend of the new HSBC SVNS Series. There was one serious-looking injury towards the end of the game and we hope the player is ok.

Japan 0-26 GB Cup QF
Japan 24-22 Canada 7th Place Playoff

Photo Credit- Zach Franzen / World Rugby

For China, they started Sunday better by beating Fiji for a second time and more convincingly with a 24-7 win after leading 19-0 at the break. This meant they would play Brazil in the 9/10th place playoff.

China was fighting hard against Brazil in the opening half, and the South Americans were blowing the Asian champions away at the breakdown and generally dominated the physical battle. Dou Xinrong gave the Chinese the lead but Brazil struck back twice to lead 12-5 at halftime. The Chinese narrowed the lead through a Gao Xiaoyang try but an excellent try from Brazil saw them lead 17-10. China scored to tie it up when Brazil had a player in the bin but Brazil scored from the restart to win 24-17.

China 24-7 Fiji – Plate SF
China 17-24 Brazil 9/10th Place Playoff

All of the results can be seen here.

The HSBC SVNS Cape Town takes place at the DHL Stadium from 7-8 December with a new pool and playoff format.

Other Highlights – Emirates Dubai 7s 2024

Hong Kong China sent two development teams to compete in the Open competitions and both sides reached the Cup quarterfinals before being knocked out on Sunday.

Hong Kong China Dragons Men 12-24 Wyvern Harlequins
H Kong China Dragons Women 5-22 Mauritian Barbarians

Congratulations to HKCR referee Sunny Lee who was involved in her first SVNS event and was part of the officiating team that managed the final between Australia and NZ.

The Lanka Lions from Sri Lanka won the Gulf Men’s Open for the 4th time in a row.

The Sri Lions won the International Open Men’s Category beating Speranza 22 in the final 26-17.

The Sri Lions won the International Open Men’s Category

The Shogun Men – who won the Tradition HKFC 10s in 2024 – were the champions of the International Invitation Men – In total 29 players who competed at the tens tournament in Hong Kong were representing their countries in Dubai.

Well done to the Saudi Rugby Tuwaiq Women – the first-ever female team from Saudi participating in their first tournament at the Emirates Dubai 7s, while the Saudi Warriors (men), were winners of the Dubai Rugby 7s Social Cup.

The data Bali Legends beat the 100 World Legends in the International Vets final 10-7 – both teams were stacked with former pro and international players.