Black Ferns Sevens, All Blacks Sevens break their Dubai droughts in SVNS Series opener
Monday, 1 December 2025
They say you learn more from your losses, and for the All Blacks Sevens and Black Ferns Sevens, it was also a case of them proving key motivators, as they made it double delight for New Zealand in an historic SVNS Series opener in Dubai.
Both Kiwi outfits ended their droughts in the desert (the men not having won the United Arab Emirates leg since 2018, the women since 2019) by each triumphing over Australia on Monday (NZ time), in what was the first time in history the trans-Tasman rivals had met one another in both deciders of the same event.
Cory Sweeney’s women’s team set the tone, with a comprehensive 29-14 victory over their arch rivals, in a result which snapped the Aussies’ phenomenal 33-game win streak in Dubai, before Tomasi Cama’s men’s unit kept up their dominance over the guys in gold, who they had not lost to since March 2023, by producing a 26-22 win to cap the memorable double.
For the All Blacks Sevens, this proved a dream start to their campaign, given their horrors of last season, where they not only failed to make a final, but featured in just one semifinal, in what was a worst-ever seventh placing in the regular season (before claiming bronze in the Grand Final event in Los Angeles), and had legendary former coach Sir Gordon Tietjens slamming their state of affairs.
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And that hurt was harnessed, new captain Tone Ng Shiu acknowledged.
“I guess we held onto that in the pre-season,” he told the host broadcaster soon after the final whistle of the decider. “So we worked bloody hard to get our fitness up and [do the] hard work behind the scenes.
“I think we fixed heaps of things, now it’s just [to] be consistent throughout the season.
“It’s a great start from our team, but just from here, if we can be consistent with the little things, it’ll make a big difference in the big picture.”
While the skipper was featuring in his 50th tournament, the men in black had fellow veteran Regan Ware ruled out late, and fielded three debutants in the form of Fletcher Morgan, Riley Williams and Kele Lasaqa.
It was Lasaqa who produced a heroic last-gasp try-saving hold-up tackle in the 21-17 win over Australia in pool play, which came in between a shaky first-up 21-14 victory over Great Britain and a convincing 24-7 defeat of Spain.
In what is a new eight-team, no-quarterfinal, format, a dramatic 24-21 semifinal win against Fiji then followed, where the All Blacks Sevens went from 19-7 up early in the second half to 21-19 behind with just over a minute left, in a game where they had Rob Rush and Akuila Rokolsioa both forced off the park.
There was no panic, however, as Jayden Keelan produced the huge play, drawing two defenders and sending a back-flicked offload for Brady Rush to go over for his second try in the final seconds.
And that confidence then flowed into the final against Australia, who had downed France 14-0 in the other semi.
While New Zealand again had to play from behind, they did so well, with tries to Dylan Collier, Rokolisoa and Sione Molia, and a try-saving tackle from player-of-the-final Brady Rush, giving them a 19-5 lead early in the second stanza.
Brisk back-to-back scores from the Aussies brought the margin back to four, but a 13th-minute try to a sprinting-round-the-outside Keelan was then able to seal the deal.
Meanwhile, the Black Ferns Sevens started where they left off from last season, notching a fifth successive tournament win, but only after a huge wake-up call in a pool-play loss to the United States.
After a messy 24-21 first-up win over France, that 21-17 defeat ended the Americans’ 14-game losing run against the Kiwis, and was the Ferns’ first loss in world series pool play in 23 games, dating back to when Canada knocked them over in the 2023-24 Grand Final event in Madrid.
“I just want to give thanks to the USA for that game,” new captain Risi Pouri-Lane noted to the host broadcaster following the tournament win.
“I think it just shows with the top eight [format] you can never take any game lightly, not that it’s our intention, but, man, every game is a final. And for us, it really pushed us in our mindset that we just needed a lift. And I think the girls did that.”
Indeed, the Ferns, who had a couple of debutants in the form of 15s star Braxton Sorensen-McGee and Blues team-mate Danii Mafoe, went on to put away unbeaten Fiji 31-12 to duly top their pool, before cruising past Japan 31-5 in their semifinal.
Australia had looked the more convincing of the two red-hot rivals, and beaten Fiji 31-10 in their semi, but, having lost four of their five finals against the Black Ferns Sevens last season, again had no answers in the decider, as tries to Stacey Waaka, Kelsey Teneti and Jorja Miller catapulted the Kiwis out of the gates.
Pouri-Lane’s early second-stanza try all but sealed the deal, at 22-0, with Jazmin Felix-Hotham’s 10th-minute yellow card, for blocking a lineout throw, not enough to derail things, with a thumping Katelyn Vahaakolo hit enabling Miller to coast away for a second try in yet another player-of-the-match performance by the 21-year-old who was at times through the tournament a single-handed force for her side.
The Kiwi teams will now be eager to back-up their work in Cape Town next weekend, before the series takes an eight-week break.
The All Blacks Sevens have been grouped for the South African leg with the defending-champion hosts, along with Dubai third-place finishers Fiji, and a Great Britain side who ended up consigning two-time reigning regular season champs Argentina to last place in the season-opener.
The Black Ferns Sevens, who last year beat the United States in the Cape Town final, have been pooled with their Dubai defeaters, who went on to finish fifth in the season-opener, along with Fiji (fourth) and Great Britain, who collected the wooden spoon after being hammered by a combined scoreline 181-24.
SVNS Series, Rd 1, Dubai
All Blacks Sevens
Pool play: beat Great Britain 21-14, beat Australia 21-17, beat Spain 24-7
Semifinal: beat Fiji 24-21
Final: beat Australia 26-22
Black Ferns Sevens
Pool play: beat France 24-21, lost to United States 21-17, beat Fiji 31-12
Semifinal: beat Japan 31-5
Final: beat Australia 29-14