Dubai: New Zealand ladies avenged their Olympics loss to Australia to claim a record third Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens women’s title on Friday.
Portia Woodman and Rebekah Cordero-Tufuga had the Black Ferns 12-0 ahead at the break with Tyla Nathan-Wong converting the second.
Cordero-Tufuga added another try early on in the second half before Emilee Cherry got a consolation for Australia to end it 17-5.
It was coach Alan Bunting’s first win in his first tournament in charge.
“I’m stoked,” he said. “The girls showed a lot of heart. We wanted to hold onto the ball and run them around a bit. But when we didn’t have the ball they shared the load and stuck together. It was an outstanding team effort.
“My philosophy is you always go somewhere to win and give it your best. But with a lack of preparation my first goal was simply to make it through to the quarter-finals.”
New Zealand captain Sarah Goss said the win went some way to getting even with Australia, who besides beating them in the Olympic final in Rio, had also pipped them to the World Series title for the first time in four attempts last season.
“To start the series on a win is always great and I think with new management and new players it makes things hugely exciting for the future.
“This is our first win in a very long time, over a year and a half, so for us it’s just about winning and building from here.”
Portia Woodman, who was the top try and points scorer at the Olympics and last season’s highest try scorer, said victory in the final was even sweeter as it came against the green and gold.
“Australia are such a good side and there is that Trans-Tasman rivalry,” she said. “We love winning, but it is a little nicer that it has come against Australia.”
Australia coach Tim Walsh said his team would now go back to the drawing board in time for round two of the six stage series at home in Sydney in February.
“Some of our Olympic gold medallists probably didn’t have their best tournament, so they are going to be pretty filthy on themselves and will go back to training ready to make amends in February. That’s the kind of people they are, they are going to be hurting from this and even more determined.
“If you don’t make tackles you can’t win games and that was pretty terrible from our defensive side, which was disappointing.
“But you can’t keep winning and winning and winning, every win takes you closer to a loss and this is just going to make us even more determined to come back and be ready for our home tournament in Sydney.”
Women’s results
Thursday December 1
England 31 — 7 Spain
Canada 26 — 19 Brazil
France 14 — 21 Fiji
New Zealand 27 — 5 Ireland
USA 12 — 10 Russia
Australia 38 — 5 South Africa
England 28 — 7 Brazil
Canada 27 — 7 Spain
France 24 — 14 Ireland
New Zealand 19 — 10 Fiji
USA 7 — 26 South Africa
Australia 20 — 7 Russia
Spain 21 — 5 Brazil
Canada 24 — 12 England
Fiji 17 — 17 Ireland
New Zealand 31 — 0 France
Russia 19 — 14 South Africa
Australia 19 — 10 USA
Friday December 2
Cup quarter-finals
New Zealand 39 — 0 South Africa
Canada 7 — 17 Russia
Fiji 17 — 19 England
Australia 42 — 0 France
Challenge Trophy semi-finals
Spain 22-7 Brazil
USA 5-28 Ireland
5th place semi-finals
South Africa 12 — 19 Canada
Fiji 31 — 12 France
Cup semi-finals
New Zealand 24 — 5 Russia
England 10 — 31 Australia
11th place play-off
Brazil 17 — 26 USA
7th place play-off
South Africa 5—31 France
5th place play-off
Canada 14—17 Fiji
Challenge Trophy Final
Spain 12—14 Ireland
Bronze medal final
Russia 17—14 England
Gold medal final
New Zealand 17—5 Australia
