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Mon 23 Jul 2018 | 08:31
New Zealand claim Rugby World Cup 7s title to secure double triumph

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New Zealand's Sevens team have become the first team to win the Rugby World Cup Sevens title for the third time after they beat England 33-12 in the final in San Francisco on Sunday. This adds to the success of the Women's team, who were also victorious.

Tournament favourites South Africa and Fiji both exited at the semi final stage, knocked out by England and New Zealand respectively. They went on to play for third place, with the Blitzbokke taking that honour by beating Fiji 24-19.

New Zealand's win sees the country picking up an unprecedented double-double, as both All Blacks Sevens and the Black Ferns won for the second RWC tournament in succession.

"The double is huge, both the men and women train in the same place and they put pressure on us by winning their final," said Tim Mikkelson, co-captin.

"We knew coming in it was going to be tough. We nearly got knocked out by France but raised it against Fiji. Credit to the coaching staff, the coach brought the boys together. We didn’t get the results but we kept on working."

Scott Curry, named AIG Player of the Final, was delighted with his team’s performance. "It’s amazing, very hard to put into words. I’m so proud of the boys’ efforts over the weekend - we had four really tough games. Credit to England, who played really well."

Head of England Sevens, Simon Amor, was naturally disappointed, but proud.

"It’s obviously disappointing to have missed out on that top spot but we made a few too many errors and turned the ball over too many times against a very good New Zealand team.

"I’m delighted with the way that the guys performed right the way through the tournament - they came through some really close games and played some outstanding rugby.

"This marks the end of a very long year but I’m really pleased with the way that we’ve grown as a programme and how the players have grown as well."

New Zealand were previously RWC Sevens champions in 2001 and 2013 while England were looking for their first title since winning the first edition of the competition at Murrayfield in 1993.

New Zealand celebrated with a traditional post victory Haka

Catch up on the Quarter Finals from Day Two

credit: worldrugby

Posted By: Grant Constable

5 Comments

  • ruckinmaul
    11:59 AM 25/07/2018

    Agree with Jerome, and to add, I think the obvious is the team normally did not fielding all their best players at the 7's series. Constantly shuffling the team, resting some big players and giving the young guys to have the opportunity, New Zealand normally do that, but I'm pretty sure the USA did not.

    And as for Fiji they can field their 15's player, Nakarawa for example, though I think it is one of the reason they lost the World Cup. and Naduva should have started instead of Tuisova. Tuisova to come as impact player from the bench.

  • larry
    10:34 PM 24/07/2018

    That is, the previous weekend at AT&T Park it was 42,000 seeing the baseball games played.

  • larry
    10:33 PM 24/07/2018

    Well, it was well attended, and the finals day was broadcast live by NBC Sports. That meant viewers could see it as it happened, instead of watching the baseball, golf, or something else. I do not know how the ratings went to see the 7s WC. I live 80 miles to the south, and have gone to many baseball games at AT&T Park, but did not get tickets to this event. They were expensive! It seems that lots of the people in the crowd were from the various nations, so it's hard to say if many Bay Area people were there. Across the Bay in Oakland there were 56,000 watching the Giants playing the Athletics in baseball. The weekend before it was a capacity crowd of 42,000 for the same teams playing. I believe 36,000 attended the Sunday games, so there were some empty seats. The other problem was the side of the pitch that the TV cameras were on: apparently the Giants did not want temporary bleachers set up in center and right field. The best seats were on the west side of the pitch, as they were very close to the touchline on that side. Across the way one would have been quite far away from the pitch. Unfortunately, Candlestick Park, which was a good venue for soccer and American football, was torn down three years ago. That would have been the better venue for this event, in my opinion. AT&T Park is really built for baseball, not another football sport. I would have thought that the pitch between goal lines might have been 95 meters at the longest, and the in-goals were obviously as short as they can be under the laws, some 7 meters.

  • 5:09 PM 23/07/2018

    Dunno. Format seems pretty similar to the World Series events. I guess the differences might be:
    - More teams in the World Cup; and
    - A different mindset/skill-set (i.e., you win the World Series via consistency and ability to handle travel, and the occasional defeat is not disastrous; you win the World Cup by being able to handle the pressure of a one-off knockout competition, and a single defeat is terminal).

    Good to see a huge crowd...

  • finedisregard
    12:05 PM 23/07/2018

    For 15's the best nations come together every four years to determine what nation is the best in the sport. It's a big deal and has set sup a four year cycle of developing teams and a focal point to get them to peak.

    My question is: don't the best 7's players in the world already play each other week in and week out during the World Rugby 7's Series?

    If so how is the 7's World Cup better or worse than just another week of the 7's circuit?

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