Sport

Black Ferns Sevens bounce back

05:45 am on 24 May 2022

You don't keep the Black Ferns Sevens down for long.

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The Olympic champions added another chapter to their rivalry with Australia on Monday morning (NZ time), closing out their brief World Series campaign with a come-from-behind win in the final at the women's World Series finale in Toulouse.

A few weeks ago, Australia scored with time up on the clock to take the spoils ahead of New Zealand in Langford, Canada.

So, for Black Ferns captain Sarah Hirini, avenging that result and finishing the series on a high was sweet.

"Australia are awesome. They're an amazing team and obviously they've won they World Series but I love this team.

"We haven't played for a very long time and to now win a tournament, it's pretty exciting."

That long time was more than two years thanks to the impacts of Covid-19, with the gold medallists from last year's Tokyo Olympics only able to come back for the final two rounds of this year's World Series.

That meant the Toulouse title was their first since they won in Sydney in early 2020.

An achievement which coach Corey Sweeney said was worth celebrating after four weeks away from home.

"We worked our way through the tournament really well and it's just a cool way to finish it off.

"The girls were awesome. Really proud of their efforts, and it took every single one of them.

"There's 13 of them here that played and they all played a massive role."

The New Zealand men's teams time in the south of France wasn't so successful.

Despite two wins from three in their pool, a third place finish left them out of the Cup quarterfinals and eventually having to settle for ninth.

But there was plenty of Kiwi celebrating to be shared around on the women's side.

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Michaela Blyde brought up her 150th series try during the tournament, which was cause for reflection for the Black Ferns' pocket rocket.

"Believe it or not I still remember my first try back in 2014.

"I never actually believed in myself that I'd be able to get to a point like this, so to be able to hit this milestone is something that I'm really proud of."

And something which coach Corey Sweeney said was well and truly on Blyde's radar.

"I took her off, actually, in one of the [earlier] games when she was on 149 and she reminded me that she had one to go.

"She's a special player and 150 tries on the world stage is phenomenal, for anybody."

As always, though, team success trumped all for the Black Ferns - and more of that was on the horizon.

The squad would return home to prepare to go for yet more gold at the looming Commonwealth Games.

The New Zealand men would be looking to bounce back at their second-last World Series round in London this weekend, before also defending their Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham.