Australia wins the Dubai championship for the fourth time in a row.

2023.12.06

As Australia breaks New Zealand’s winning streak to win a record-tying fourth title in Dubai, team and individual records fall.

The HSBC SVNS 2024 got off to an explosive start as Teagan Levi touched try either side of halftime as Australia stopped New Zealand’s 41-match winning streak to capture the championship for the fourth time in a row in Dubai.

Maddison Levi, not to be outdone by her younger sister, smashed her own tournament try record. Her game-winning try came in the thirteenth minute on the final play of the weekend.

The game started out at an incredible pace and didn’t slow down. In the 23rd final match between the two teams, Bienne Tarita scored the first try with just 23 seconds remaining, putting Australia on the path to victory.

However, the Black Ferns Sevens presented challenges for the winners. Before Maddison Levi ended the competition in the last minutes, Jorja Miller scored twice in the opening five minutes on her way to a hat-trick in a losing cause.

Charlotte Caslick, the captain of Australia, had nothing but admiration for the younger Levi. “She is amazing. We’re all only now beginning to see the results of her incredible preseason effort this year.

“We wanted to hold the ball as much as possible because we know when they touch it they’re dangerous,” she said while describing the strategy for being the first side to defeat New Zealand since the championship game in Dubai last year. For us, maintaining possession of the ball and restarting were crucial.

“We enjoy performing in front of you guys, we enjoy visiting Dubai, and we love the fans here.” We’re really proud of this amazing crew. This is really precious to us since we worked extremely hard for it.

Australia had a difficult journey to the final. They overcame a challenging semi-final matchup with France, winning 21-14 because to Maddison Levi’s record-tying 11th tournament try, despite Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea receiving a red card three minutes before the end of play.

“Isn’t she amazing?,” teammate Demi Hayes said of the try-machine. She is simply the greatest finisher ever, along with Faith Nathan. They are such a blessing to have on our team. That kind of critical game is one in which they consistently win.

Kelly Brazier, who became the third Black Ferns Sevens player to achieve 100 tries, earlier scored a try for New Zealand that finally arrived just in time as they defeated Brazil 26–14 in the first quarterfinal.

They then defeated Canada 21-19 in the semifinal to set up a rematch with Australia in the championship game from the previous year.

BRONZE FINAL: Aiming for third place, ambitious France still wants more

After defeating Canada twice in Dubai to win the bronze final 26-5 and seal third place, France handed themselves an early Christmas present. Yolaine Yengo scored a hat-trick in the first half, and Lou Noel wrapped it up early in the second session.

It was the first time in five attempts that Les Bleues had defeated Canada in a bronze final, and the overwhelming victory came well after Olivia Apps’ consolation try a minute from time.

However, Chloé Pelle stated that Les Bleues aimed to achieve more in an Olympic year. “We genuinely desired to win the competition and to make it to the final. It will have to wait till the next time, as we know we can. However, it was important to get back on our feet and to win that medal.”

Fiji concludes their campaign in Dubai with great success.

After a thrilling, error-filled game, Fiji defeated Ireland 24–19 to take fifth place thanks to Ilisapeci Dalaiwau’s sprint for the game’s winning score.

While acknowledging that her team had anticipated more, Raijieli Daveua expressed satisfaction with Fiji’s golden-point victory: “I know we didn’t make it into the top four – that was our main target for this week.”

“We didn’t do that, but our most recent game allowed us to secure fifth place. We succeeded in pulling our socks up. Though we still need to improve on a few areas, we performed admirably today.

Meanwhile, USA defeated Brazil 38-7 to win the seventh game of the HSBC SVNS 2024 series and earn eight crucial series points.

Japan and South Africa finished ninth and 10th respectively, after a hard-fought play-off ended 12-5. And Great Britain had been surprisingly shut-out by Japan in the ninth-place semi-final earlier on finals day, but recovered to come back from 12-0 down against Spain in the 11th-place play-off to win 26-12, and claim two series points.

@charith