{"id":332591,"date":"2025-12-07T10:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T10:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332591\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T10:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T10:48:08","slug":"black-ferns-sevens-into-another-svns-decider-against-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332591\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Ferns Sevens into another SVNS decider against Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Black Ferns Sevens are through to their ninth-consecutive Cup Final on the HSBC SVNS Series after beating France<\/a> 19-7 at Cape Town\u2019s DHL Stadium. They will take on a familiar foe in the decider, with Australia<\/a> claiming a 34-7 win over the USA.<\/p>\n

New Zealand<\/a> topped Pool A with a perfect run of three wins from as many matches on Saturday, finishing the group stage with a plus 66 points differential. Australia claimed the number-one seed out of Pool B, also going through unbeaten against tough opposition.<\/p>\n

With the new SVNS Series format sending the top two teams from each pool directly through to the semi-finals, both New Zealand and Australia turned their focus to the final four, along with impressive France and USA<\/a> outfits.<\/p>\n

France opened the scoring in the first semi-final through Alycia Christiaens, as they looked to snap a five-match losing streak against the New Zealanders that dates back to the Hong Kong<\/a> Sevens in 2024.<\/p>\n

24-year-old Christiaens raced away for a long-range effort to five France the lead, as they dared to dream of an upset win. It was a tense first half, with the French giving themselves every chance of a result against the defending SVNS Series World Championship winners.<\/p>\n

Jorja Miller ran upfield before running a switch play with Stacey Waaka. Waaka ran straight into a gap, and the two-time Olympic gold medallist had too much pace, racing away to the try line for the decisive score.<\/p>\n

It was 7-all at the break.<\/p>\n

New Zealand needed someone to step up, they needed a hero to win this semi-final, and it was Jazmin Felix-Hotham who answered the call. The Paris Olympics gold medallist gave New Zealand the lead less than 30 seconds into the second half.<\/p>\n

Felix-Hotham helped the Black Ferns Sevens all but seal the win later in the match, tackled to ground before getting a pop pass off the deck to Alena Saili. Saili crossed with three and a half minutes left, and the New Zealanders were good enough to hang on for the 12-point victory.<\/p>\n

In the second semi-final, Heidi Dennis gave Australia the lead with a five-pointer in the fourth minute. Australia appeared to be in control anyway, but Maddison Levi reinforced that belief by gliding down the left sideline shortly after.<\/p>\n

Australia co-captain Isabella Nasser sent Maddison Levi over for her second in the final play of the half. While the conversion missed the mark, the Australians had put themselves in a commanding position with one half left to play.<\/p>\n

Kaylen Thomas gave the USA hope of a comeback early in the second half, picking off a pass before running away to score. Tahna Wilfey added the extras, reducing the deficit to just 12 points with plenty of time left.<\/p>\n

Alex Sedrick was shown a yellow card with a few minutes left, and Australia sealed the win with the one-player advantage. Maddison Levi dove over for her hat-trick, which was the try-scoring machine\u2019s 13th five-pointer of the season already.<\/p>\n

Bienne Terita scored another try for Australia, before Maddison Levi completed a four-try haul, securing a comprehensive semi-final win for the Australians in Cape Town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Black Ferns Sevens are through to their ninth-consecutive Cup Final on the HSBC SVNS Series after beating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-332591","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\/332591","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=332591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}