NZ Sevens double winners in Dubai
- editor59343
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
New Zealand has cleaned up at the Dubai round of the Sevens World Series with the Black Ferns Sevens and All Blacks Sevens beating Australia in their respective finals.
It was the All Black Sevens first title since Singapore in 2024 after failing to win a single title last season and suffering defeats at regular intervals.
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On this occasion they held on to be Australia 26-22 in the final thanks to tries to Dylan Collier, Akuila Rokolisoa, Sione Molia and Hayden Keelan.
Earlier in the day, the All Blacks Sevens beat Australia and Spain in pool play before accounting for Fiji in the semifinal.
The Black Ferns Sevens destroyed their arch-rivals 29-14, a turn around from the final at the same venue last year. It was the New Zealand women's first Dubai title since 2019.
Jorja Miller scored a double and was named player of the women's final and she said it was nice to get one back over Australia.
"It means everything. Dubai is probably the favourite stop of the series, so to get the win here over a really strong Australian side, I'm so proud of the girls," said Miller.
"We knew that if we let them get an inch that they would take it, so we just knew we had to come out there and play our game and start strong and let the rest follow."
Brady Rush made a try-saving tackle just before halftime to stop Australia scoring in the men's final to be named player of the match.
"Pretty stoked with that. It's obviously been a while, but I'm pretty happy to get it done for our captain Tone [Ng Shiu] in his 50th tourney.
"It shows all the hard work we've put up in preseason, so we're looking forward to the rest of the season," said Rush.
The next round of the World Sevens Series is in Cape Town, South Africa, this weekend.
