{"id":721801,"date":"2026-06-07T22:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T22:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/721801\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T22:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T22:00:11","slug":"australia-crowned-rugby-sevens-world-champions-after-conquering-new-zealand-in-bordeaux-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/721801\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia crowned rugby sevens world champions after conquering New Zealand in Bordeaux final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maddison Levi has defied a knee injury to score a superb double as Australia wrapped up the women’s rugby sevens World Championship in Bordeaux, France.<\/p>\n

Australia defeated New Zealand 26-19 in the final to clinch the world title.<\/p>\n

New Zealand won the first of the three World Championship tournaments in Hong Kong, before Australia secured back-to-back triumphs in Valladolid and Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

Levi was injured during the Valladolid tournament and was kept under wraps for the first two days of competition in Bordeaux until the semis and final.<\/p>\n

She produced a player-of-the-match display in the final with two tries, while Heidi Dennis and Faith Nathan also crossed the stripe to help Australia secure a third overall title in five years.<\/p>\n

Levi also saved a try in defence, when she chased down New Zealand’s Katelyn Vaha’akolo during the second half.<\/p>\n

\"Maddison<\/p>\n

Maddison Levi starred for Australia in the final against New Zealand. (Reuters: Catherine Steenkeste)<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty surreal,” Levi said after the final.<\/p>\n

“The girls helped me get back and I wouldn’t be here without them. We spoke before the game that it’s been our most consistent season, and we’ve been in every final.<\/p>\n

“We’ve beaten an amazing New Zealand side. It’s always hard when we play them.<\/p>\n

“No matter even when we beat them, it’s always a tough game.”<\/p>\n

Aussie 7s star has ‘unfinished business’<\/a><\/p>\n

For an athlete still in the early stages of her professional career, Australian rugby 7s player Kaitlin Shave has already experienced the highs and lows of sport.<\/p>\n

Levi’s sister Teagan also enjoyed a big tournament, while co-captain Bella Nasser came up trumps with a big defensive play early in the final.<\/p>\n

Earlier on the final day, the Tim Walsh-coached side reached the tournament decider with a 21-7 victory over USA in the semis.<\/p>\n

“In the end, our big-game players all stepped up and the depth in our program means we have more than one player capable of turning a game at any moment,” Walsh said.<\/p>\n

“Champions are not stars. Champions are team players that consistently show up and perform even when they don’t feel like it.”<\/p>\n

The overall men’s world title went to South Africa, despite the team being defeated in the semis in Bordeaux by hosts France, who went on to beat New Zealand 14-5 in the final.<\/p>\n

The Australian men ended up fifth in the season’s standings, winning their last match of the season 29-0 against Great Britain to claim seventh position in Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maddison Levi has defied a knee injury to score a superb double as Australia wrapped up the women’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[171890,64,63,48353,178903,1736,760,31153,2633,85,2086,2836],"class_list":["post-721801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-7s","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bordeaux","tag-maddison-levi","tag-new-zealand","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-sevens","tag-rugby-union","tag-sports","tag-world-championship","tag-world-title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721801","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=721801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}