Australia’s outstanding rugby women have powered to a second straight Dubai Sevens trophy in successive weeks, while their male counterparts fell agonisingly short in their final.
The Australian women maintained their dominant unbeaten sequence over the past two weeks on Saturday to lift the title with a convincing 15-5 triumph in the final over Fiji, who they also beat in last weekend’s showdown.
The Aussie men, who had also reached their final unbeaten, were then left crestfallen at coming so close to ending the remarkable winning run of South Africa’s brilliant ‘Blitzboks’ before going down 10-7.
Two tries from Madison Ashby and another from player of the final Faith Nathan were enough for the Australian women to largely control affairs in the final against the ‘Fijiana’, just as they had done in their 22-7 win the previous week.
Charlotte Caslick, the star in that previous final, was again outstanding after Demi Hayes’ side had been reduced to six in the second half with four minutes left because of a harsh sin-binning of Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea for a deliberate knock-on.
Caslick’s remarkable workrate saw her earn a crucial late turnover to ease the Aussies’ path to their first back-to-back world series titles for nearly four years.
Earlier on Saturday, they had wrapped up a 26-17 win over Russia in their final pool game.
And over five matches across the two days, the Australians’ dominance had been clear as they racked up 168 points, featuring 26 tries, including six from Nathan, who scored in every match, and another half-dozen from Caslick.
“I’m so proud of the girls. That’s exactly how we wanted to start this series and considering that it’s the first back-to-back series ever in Dubai, we’re so stoked,” said Hayes.
“We just kept to our structure, and knew exactly how we wanted to play, with width and making them run lots,” added the captain, whose side suffocated their opponents with non-stop pressure in the opening half as they led 10-0.
Dubai has proved a happy hunting ground for the Australians after the COVID pandemic forced the cancellation of the planned world series event in South Africa and ended with the UAE capital staging a tournament two weeks running.
The South African men also completed the Dubai ‘double’ but even as they maintained their incredible record of 24 successive wins across four consecutive events, no-one came closer to ruining the streak than the Australians who were still hammering away for a winning score in the dying seconds.
After the South Africans had gone ahead within 45 seconds through Siviwe Soyizwapi, Brumbies’ Corey Toole scooted over for his sixth try of the week as Australia squeezed ahead 7-5.
But a dazzling bit of skill from JC Pretorius saw him race over in the second half for the decisive score which makes the ‘Blitzboks’ the first team to win three successive Dubai titles since New Zealand in 2002.
Earlier, Australia had beaten Ireland 24-12 in the quarter-finals and crushed Argentina 40-0 in their biggest-ever semi-final rout.
New Zealand and Australia would normally have hosted the next legs of the sevens world series but those events have been cancelled and replaced by two events in Spain in January.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Android, mate, if you looked at the squad, there were so many left at home, & there were many young emerging talent in the side. About 14 or so, I think it was. That, along with, like the Australian girls, we have had very limited match play. You'll no doubt see a big difference, when the women RWC is on next year. Also this CoviD pandemic has thrown most international rugby into disarray
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Thanks Hugh, & really it shows how this pandemic has thrown, this series of tournaments into disarray. Like even with HK, not being there, partly due to internal issues, it is still rated the ' gem' of the series, the premier event. Hopefully we'll get back on track.
Android-angler Cartman-brah
Roar Rookie
Muz why did Black ferns perform so badly year-end.
Hugh_96
Roar Pro
Next is Spain, back to back tournaments again. NZ are meant to playing. Not sure Cape Town is still on the list. HK has been cancelled in this Series but moved to November to be the first stop of next year's World Series.
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
They may never lose again. Well done to our fearless women’s 7s. The men did very well too. I like that Dietrich Roach. Look good in a Force jersey. ;)
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Well, she is the top try scorer, in womens Seven's, ever. She's so far ahead of anyone else, it's not funny.
Hugh_96
Roar Pro
Hate to say it but Woodman in particular is outstanding and has been for a long time.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Yep I see your point Hugh, but not only did Green have the pace, she could, as she proved time & again,she could bust tackles, & make a good break. That's only from my observance over the years. Also TBH, Portia Woodman & Michaela Blyde, had the ' wood ' on them both.
Hugh_96
Roar Pro
Muzzo, I was a big Green fan who brought speed and physicality to the Aussie women's team & was a real star. But in my opinion Caslick is at a significantly higher level.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
In truth, women's rugby is ATM, in ' lock down' as many national teams are not on show. Like even the current women's RWC holders NZ, didn't have many of their star players available, during their recent NH ' excursion' . Up to 14 of their squad, were emerging talent.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Actually Green was every bit as good, when she was there.
Diesel 2.0
Roar Rookie
Without a doubt Hugh. She's an elite and a super star and should be at the forefront of RU. The NRLW were on to it when they ran promos of her and the other 7's girls last year and I don't get why rugby AU don't see the opportunities when its staring at them in the face.
Hugh_96
Roar Pro
The women played so very well, and you cannot overstate how good Charlotte Caslick. Seriously Rugby AU should have her out regularly promoting rugby in Australia - every sport has its stars and Caslick is at the top in rugby.
Android-angler Cartman-brah
Roar Rookie
Women's rugby is new to me as a fan. Im starting to love it. I've watched the 2017 final Eng vs NZ over the weekend, what a game. The ladies have skills and play lots of attacking rugby. Those Eng forwards are massive and athletic. SA hopefully will catch up. While there's not much international rugby I'll get mine from YouTube watching the ladies.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Great stuff by the Aussie girls, as they looked good, especially Caslick with no Blyde or Woodman there. So, congrats. Now I take it, it's on to Capetown, & it should be virtually the same result, in this reduced World Series of Seven's. Is HK still on, or has that, being the premier venue of the Series, been cancelled too?
biltong
Guest
Yes our womens rugby has a long way to go, first step is building the domestic 15's game, we need to get all our provinces involved, currently we have six provincial teams, hopefully it will expand to all 14 provinces. I think conditioning and skills should be the main priorities for the existing clubs. Also still a lot to improve technically.
Brett Susan
Roar Rookie
The Australian women’s team is fantastic. I can’t wait until we in South Africa can come within a mile if those standards for women’s rugby. I know Rassie is making massive strides behind the scenes in this department.
Diesel 2.0
Roar Rookie
I’m elated for the Aussie Women’s. This new team is enthusiastic and fit. The playing led on field coaching has really shown through with some simple structures being reestablished in their game shape. I particularly like that 2 options of playing a (3phase) wide2wide2wide running fast and hard with fast forwards in the 5m channels, then coming back striking the middle with the players like Nathan and Maddy who run good lines to score off tiring defences. Mind you this would not be possible if their passing through the multi phases was not as accurate as it has been, which at times have been tallying up around 16 – 20 passes. That’s a good indicator of how fit and strong they are. Maddy btw seems to be more of a strike ball carrier now rather than a playmaker which has tidied up the clunkiness they had in the halves previously. I like the subtle change in how the centres are carrying strong to space while double pumping the pass to draw the doubting wing defender to a “bite in” creating a trap and space on the outside. Nice. Their defence is well structured and accurate. It seems like they are aiming to create a turnover by pressuring the ball carrier/ruck and around the 2nd phase which has worked quite well. Teams usually aim for the 2nd ruck or risk fatigue beyond that phase. Charlotte has been just phenomenal. Her link play and defence has been the best of them all in Dubai. She is so unrelenting, so unselfish and just everywhere and in everything. Her fitness is elite level. She runs around at an 80% high intensity sprint most of the time covering massive metres and can still think clearly and execute play. Oh! They still have a few things to sort out like the restarts and red zone structure but otherwise, just excellent. As for the mens, now this is a team going on to good things. The resolve to come back against Ireland who were belting them was quite extraordinary of them. They are finding ways and literally sticking to their systems. But, I feel like a dedicated playmaker sweeper like Longbottom might take away the fluency of this team who are playing unselfish and with purpose. Have a strike sweeper sometimes causes issues with the flow because he can at times try and strike to early without first, aiming to fatigue the defence. I do think they need to sort out their subs though as they are running some of these players into the ground while the impact players on the bench sitting clean. Fresh legs in the 9th minute is essential.
Dave
Guest
Both mens & womens teams doing very well atm I think we could be even better with a few changes in selections but a quality start from both sides
biltong
Guest
Congrats to the Blitzboks on four tournament wins in a row. They also stretched their winning run to 24 matches.