Olivia Apps<\/a> who stepped up to hand Canada third place, and their best finish of the year.<\/p>\nPerth: France 24-12 Canada (Women\u2019s Pool B)<\/p>\n
As New Zealand continued their dominance with a big win over Australia in the final, Perth proved a pivotal moment for the French women\u2019s side, landing their second bronze finish of the year.<\/p>\n
Up against a Canadian team fresh off a bronze medal finish in Singapore, the French scored four tries to two, dominating the first half and pulling away in the closing stages, with Alycia Christiaens bagging a double.<\/p>\n
Despite going on to finish fourth overall in the regular season, the result suggests strong signs are ahead for French women\u2019s rugby, both in the longer and shorter formats of the game.<\/p>\n
Vancouver: USA 35-21 France (Third-place playoff)\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the final fortnight of the regular season, the USA came home with a wet sail to clinch bronze in this year\u2019s competition, asking plenty of questions of the likes of Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
While not getting to the final, their victory over France showed how much talent they have to offer, with Sammy Sullivan and Kaylen Thomas bagging doubles, the latter showing why she has become one of the most regarded names in the circuit.<\/p>\n
New York: New Zealand 22-21 Australia (Final)<\/p>\n
There were many moments of brilliance from the chasing pack this season, but when it came to the contest for top dog, it was always between the Trans-Tasman rivals.<\/p>\n
New Zealand came into New York having won the last three legs of the tournament, with Singapore and Perth landing big grand final wins over their Aussie rivals.<\/p>\n
However, Australia flew out of the blocks in New York thanks to the Levi sisters, overcoming an early Kiwi try to lead at halftime 14-5, and opening up a 16-point margin in the second half.<\/p>\n
Cue a stunning fightback from the defending champions, with three tries and a conversion that proved enough to snatch victory.<\/p>\n
It was a result that encapsulated New Zealand\u2019s dominance of this competition, and that their closest rivals will have to produce something special to down them when the finals get underway next month in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the HSBC\u00a0SVNS\u00a0breaks for the next month, the gap gives fans a chance to look back on an…\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":["post-552539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552539","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=552539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552539\/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=552539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}