New Zealand Extend Series Lead Over Australia after Vancouver 7s Win

2026-03-09 - 03:46

New Zealand extended their lead over Australia in the HSBC SVNS Series standings to eight points after claiming their fourth tournament title in five events this season. It was another hard-fought meeting between the two big rivals of the women’s sevens game — but player-of-the-final Jorja Miller was the crucial point of difference between the two teams. Captain Risi Pouri-Lane pointed to the Black Ferns Sevens’ efforts to maintain consistency. “The biggest thing for us is that you can never get complacent and there’s always things you can work on and get better at. They make a big difference in the long run.” USA beat France in the third-place play-off to end a nine-tournament wait for a podium finish, while Canada got the home crowd on their feet as they claimed fifth, and Japan claimed seventh at the end of an end-to-end play-off against Great Britain.