Tyla King – Our Goal Is To Go Out There And Dominate

NZ 7s Women’s playmaker and rugby star Tyla King spoke to a small group of Asian-based media on Friday ahead of the upcoming 2024 Singapore SVNS – which is significant in 2024 as it’s the first time the women will compete at the Singapore National Stadium, and it is the final regular SVNS season leg to determine the champions.

King (nee Tyla-Wong) has been playing on the 7s circuit for more than a decade, having broken into the NZ 7s team as a teenager, and has won just about everything on offer in the game. From Commonwealth gold to 7s Series titles, as well as medals in the Rugby World Cup Sevens, she is also an Olympic gold medallist as her team looks to defend the title in Paris in 2024.

This 2023-2024 SVNS season has seen her teammates such as Michaela Blyde and Portia Woodman-Wickliffe surpass personal milestones, both reaching 50 tournaments, with the latter also becoming the first woman to score 250 HSBC Sevens series tries – Tyla has also been setting records.

She became the highest scorer for NZ 7s women surpassing 1385 points at the 2024 LA SVNS before the New Zealand women went on to defend, and again, win the Cathay/HSCB Hong Kong 7s a few weeks ago and potentially become the only ever SVNS women’s team to win at the Hong Kong Stadium as the venue changes from 2025.

Singapore SVNS 2024 – A First For The Women

Photo Credit: World Rugby – Tyla King with Portia Woodman-Wickliffe with the spoils after the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2024

King said; “Everyone’s pretty excited coming off that win and potentially being the last women’s team to win in that stadium (Hong Kong). To, potentially, be the last team to win that tournament in Hong Kong, and that stadium was pretty special, especially with the history that the Hong Kong tournament holds.

Knowing that, we still didn’t quite nail everything that we wanted to in some of those games; obviously going down to France in the pool stages. We learned a lot from that game and have been working on that here at home and just around different conditions cause it was a bit wet when we did play them.

And then just making sure that we stick to our game plan because we fell away from our game plan a bit in that game. But it was awesome to see how, as a team, we bounced back from that loss and then obviously came away with a tournament win. So, we are still excited and ready for this next tournament, but also knowing that we haven’t quite hit the full potential that we know this team can.”

Her perfectionist attitude is one her team and their fiercest rivals Australia both share, and they come into Singapore tied at the top of the log, both on 106 SVNS Series points.

Both will want to win at the Singapore National Stadium from 3-5 May 2024, the first time the women have played there, but to also wrap up the Series before the Grand Final in Madrid and then, of course, Paris for the Olympics.

“It’s a pretty exciting one coming up – the first time in Singapore for, I think, the majority of our team. So we’re very excited to come to a new location. We’ve watched it from afar as our boys have been involved and played in that tournament over the last few years.”

On visiting Singapore, it will be King’s first visit but her husband (she got married earlier in 2024 and missed the first few legs of the SVNS Season) has been before.

“My husband has actually gone to Singapore multiple times. He’s an outrigger canoe paddler, so he’s gone over there and done coaching, paddling, and racing in Singapore. He tells me how awesome it is over there; and how hot it can get as well. So luckily, I think we’re playing in an air-conditioned stadium.

But then also the amazing food; our team loves food. I’m a big foodie myself. So we’re looking forward to coming over there and experiencing the different cuisines and all that kind of stuff available to us,” added King.

Of the SVNS Series itself and what is at stake, King added, “To be top of the table, drawing on points, but just ahead of Aussie. We’ll be doing pretty much the same thing that we have all season, just focusing on the simple things, the basics, and hopefully come away with that win, leading into Madrid, which is the final tournament of the series, to try and lock that World Series in.

Over the next few tournaments – Singapore, Madrid, and then obviously the big one at the Olympics in Paris – it’s just going to be some incredible rugby for everyone to watch. Our goal is to go out there and dominate and come away with the win at all of those.” said Tyla King.

NZ women are in Pool A with Canada, Ireland and Spain at at the Singapore SVNS 2024.

Singapore Rugby Festival 2024

Part of the emphasis of the new SVNS Series is celebrating each host city and having a festival atmosphere.

“It’s very important. What I love about, for example, the Dubai Sevens tournament is that they don’t just have us and the men competing; they’ve got a festival of sports.

They’ve got a whole bunch of different tournaments outside of rugby, including netball; I think they had a bit of CrossFit there recently, too. So it attracts a wider range of audience and a wider range of age, too, because they had, I think, under-16s and 19s competitions as well, which is really, really cool.

It’s cool to see Singapore taking that on board as well and looking to not just have us there as the ones to watch but incorporate the rest of the community, the rugby community, and hopefully, those who had never seen it before, enticing them and gaining some interest there to come along to watch.

HSBC SVNS Series Format – Tyla King

The new SVNS format means this final regular season round is like a minor championship with the victor from the top 8 ranked teams playing for the Grand Final in Madrid. That season-ending tournament is also crucial for relegation and promotion – by the end of the Singapore SVNS we will know who the bottom four teams are that will need to play for SVNS Series survival against the top 4 teams from the Challenger Series which will only be determined at the final leg in Europe in mid-May.

“This has probably been one of the more competitive seasons, I’d say. It’s not just the likes of us, Australia, France – we’ve always kind of been near the top and performing, and the USA too.

But it’s these other teams, such as Brazil and South Africa, and Canada more recently, that have really been pushing these top nations, ourselves included. It’s due to more competition, more teams being exposed to the best level of rugby that is possible.

That’s why it’s pretty exciting to see that Challenger Series, which is the next division below ours and I think that kind of thing is pretty cool. We could see new countries exposed to the World Series. The game’s developing massively and we’ve seen that and the growth of the game is in a very, very good spot.

Tyla King – Thoughts On SVNS Schedule and Grand Finals Format

On the scheduling which has changed, in the past Singapore would follow on directly from Hong Kong, but now the top 8 need to compete in a grand final in the final leg, she commented, “I do find a bit weird is how it’s kind of like you play this tournament in Singapore, and then you qualify for the finals. It’s almost like a one-off tournament because whoever wins that wins the World Series, which is pretty strange, I think.”

She explained, “Whereas in the past 12 World Series that I’ve played in, it’s been consistency; the team that’s had the best consistency over those however many tournaments during the season. You collect the points and then you win because you’ve made the most points and it’s gone on consistency, whereas this is kind of like a one-off.

So it’s more like a pinnacle event where you go to a tournament and it’s just a one-off like the Olympics, like a World Cup, like a Commonwealth Games, where you just got to show up and put your best foot forward. It’s all about making sure we can perform when it counts at the end of the day.”

Defending Olympic Gold – Sevens Rugby Paris 2024

On heading to Paris at the end of the HSBC SVNS season, King said, “Momentum does play a big part in how you go into a tournament. So we’re obviously coming off some nice momentum in the previous tournaments. We’re not taking the next two tournaments lightly at all, because there is an Olympic Games at the end of this.

We see those two (Singapore and Madrid) as very important stepping stones for us to make sure we are fine-tuning, getting the right combinations out on the field, and making sure our game plans are forever adapting as we go along.”

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