Japan Sakura 7s Secure Best-Ever Finish – Australia Women and Argentina Men Win HSBC SVNS Perth 2025

The Australian women pleased the home crowd by winning the HSBC SVNS Perth 2025 against old rivals New Zealand in a terrific final, while the Argentina men defended the title they won last season by emphatically beating the hosts at HBF Park. The Japan Sakura 7s finished 5th in Western Australia for their best finish in the SVNS Series.

Feature Photo Credit – (by Zach Franzen / World Rugby) Argentina and Australia celebrate their Cup Final Victories at the 2025 HSBC SVNS Perth at HBF Park on January 26, 2025 in Perth, Australia.

The sell-out finals day crowd had been treated to shock results all weekend in the sweltering sun but on Australia Day it was the Aussie women who brought home the Cup by beating Olympic champions New Zealand 28-26 despite being without two of their strike players Madi Levi and Faith Nathan as the young guns and the permanent class of Charlotte Caslick avenged last years surprise loss final to the Irish. New Zealand Black Ferns had the welcome return of Michaela Brake (nee Bkyde) who scored tries aplenty on finals day to creep ever closer to breaking Portia Woodman-Wickliff’s try-scoring record.

19-year-old Heidi Dennis scored a try in each half for Australia and was the player of the final for the Women and she said it was down to “Just grit, all the way to the end. They really made us fight for that one.”

This was the first time the women’s final was the last showpiece match of the tournament (Stay tuned as we publish our interview with HSBC Ambassador Alicia Lucas about the impact of this on the women’s game).

Argentina was the best Men’s team all weekend and seemed to be finding the form of early last season, also thanks to the return to form and full recovery from injury of ‘MoneyMan’ Marcos Moneta as they thrashed the Australian men 41-5 victory to retain Perth title. They became the third different tournament winners in as many rounds for the Men. Head coach Santiago Gómez Cora was watching from back home recovering from an injury but joined via mobile phone for the post-match interviews!

Argentina captain Santiago Mare said “I’m very proud of my team. We are growing, tournament to tournament – we are looking forward to Vancouver.”

Photo Credit – World Rugby – Marcos Moneta was victorious with Argentina 7s at HSBC Perth SVNS 2025

Spain and France claimed men’s and women’s bronze respectively – the Spanish beat the Blitzboks to secure their third straight top-four finish this season, and the French beat Olympic silver medalists Canada to make it three consecutive third-place finishes.

Blitzbok coach Philip Snyman said, “We want to be consistent and if you finish in the top four in each tournament, it will not only show consistency but will ultimately put you in contention to be top of the log at the end of the series….In some tournaments, you will get a good bounce of the ball and in others a bad call or two, but that was not why we did not win. We were just not clinical enough when it mattered.”

For the Asian sides, Japan maintained their impressive start to the season and secured their third consecutive top-8 finish and beat the Olympic bronze medalists, the USA to 5th – their highest finish in the SVNS Series. They turned the game around to come from behind with scores from Mei Ohtani, Mayu Yoshino, Minako Taniyam, and Suzuha Okamoto (2) to win a famous victory.

Photo Credit -World Rugby – Japan Sakura 7s Finsished 5th at Perth SVNS 2025

China lost to Brazil 19-21 in the 7-8th place match to finish 8th overall which has been their best result in the three rounds. Unsurprisingly the inclusion of front-line players who were not selected and didn’t play the opening two rounds made a difference.

Liu Xiaoqian was the top scorer for the Chinese on her first appearance in this Series.

World Rugby Chief Executive Alan Gilpin said: “To sell out finals day for two years running is a fantastic achievement and a tribute to all the stakeholders involved in delivering what has been another exhilarating event, both on and off the pitch. Congratulations to Australia and Argentina on their well-deserved titles and it was fitting to bring down the curtain with an epic women’s final, showcasing the very best of world-class rugby sevens played by these incredible athletes.”

All of the weekend’s results can be seen here.

Some Notable milestones from the weekend in Perth:

• The first time the women’s final was the last match played.
• Michaela Brake has now scored 250 SVNS tries – the second woman to do so.
• Thalia Da Silva Costa became the first Brazilian woman to score 100 tries in the Series.
• Uruguay beat both NZ and Fiji in pool play.
• Japan’s highest finish on the SVNS Series – 5th.
• Another 29 players made their SVNS debut in Perth!
• Jessica Lu scored her first SVNS Series try for the USA.

Japan Results – Perth SVNS 2025

Pool Matches

• Japan 14-7 Ireland
• Japan 19-12 Brazil
• Japan 5-53 NZ
• Quarterfinal – Japan 0-35 Australia
• 5-6th place – Japan 29-22 USA

China Results – Perth SVNS 2025

Photo Credit – World Rugby – China Women Finished 8th at Perth SVNS 2025

Pool Matches

• China 7-31 Australia
• China 0-21 France
• China 14-0 Spain
• Quarterfinal –  China 0-29 NZ
• 7-8th place – China 19-21 Brazil

HSBC SVNS News 2025

• Japan Men To Play 2025 HSBC SVNS Vancouver Invitational Sevens Tournament.
• World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 Details Announced.
• Melrose Claymores Teams For Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2025 Announced.
• Hong Kong China Rugby CEO James Farndon – “Hugely Exciting Times Ahead”.