{"id":319632,"date":"2025-12-01T01:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T01:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319632\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T01:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T01:28:09","slug":"commentator-identifies-where-the-black-ferns-sevens-shone-in-dubai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319632\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentator identifies where the Black Ferns Sevens shone in Dubai"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With both Kiwi Sevens teams claiming victory in the opening HSBC SVNS Series in Dubai, it\u2019s safe to say the momentum going into this weekend\u2019s Cape Town leg is all in favour of the two New Zealand<\/a> teams from down under.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks<\/a> Sevens side have been drawn the hosts in Pool A, South Africa, alongside Dubai bronze-medallists Fiji, and Great Britain, while for Cory Sweeney\u2019s Black Ferns Sevens, they will once again take on the USA<\/a> in pool play, as well as Great Britain and Fijiana in Pool A.<\/p>\n

Heading into the 2025-26 SVNS Series campaign, the squad were without three of their most important and experienced players in Sarah Hirini<\/a>, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe<\/a> and Michaela Brake, therefore the Dubai tournament was crucial in giving people opportunities ahead of a long season.<\/p>\n

HSBC SVNS Series commentator Karl Te Nana explained to\u00a0Scotty & Izzy\u00a0on\u00a0Sport Nation\u00a0that the squad have adjusted well to losing all of that experience, and that he believes the squad were \u201cplaying angry\u201d in Dubai.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been staying with the Women\u2019s side here in Dubai over the weekend, Cory Sweeney spoke to our production crew before kick off, and gave us insights in how they approached this weekend. He said we\u2019ve got to adjust, and that they\u2019ve lost a lot of the IQ and IP with Sarah Hirini, Portia Woodman-Wicckliffe and Michaela Brake.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they\u2019re trying to find new ways, I think they adjusted. And to me, they played angry and I think they showed out, especially defensively and in that final against Australia, I think defensively, they reapplied a lot of pressure,\u201d Te Nana told Sport Nation.<\/p>\n

Not only do the Black Ferns Sevens lose Hirini\u2019s playing skills, they also lose the on-field leadership in big moments, something that Te Nana believes will come over time for both Risi Pouri-Lane<\/a> and Jorja Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cRisi has captained the side before in the absence of Hirini so I think this weekend it was more just getting their sevens lungs back as they\u2019ve been in the bottom of rucks for the last three months now in the 15\u2019s game, so it took a little while to adjust, but in the final, she really showed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest, on the first day, she [Miller] got them those two wins but she could sort of just play a little bit more free and a little bit wider, and then the final when you have someone like that doing special things in tough periods. I think that\u2019s what gives everyone else confidence, and that\u2019s what those two in particular do for each other,\u201d Te Nana said on\u00a0Scotty & Izzy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With both Kiwi Sevens teams claiming victory in the opening HSBC SVNS Series in Dubai, it\u2019s safe to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-319632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}