Australia and New Zealand will hope to send off legendary players with a golden goodbye as the women’s tournament gets underway at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Sunday.
The trans-Tasman rivals arrived in Paris with one Olympic gold apiece, Australia scaling the top step of the podium as rugby returned to the Games at Rio 2016 before the Black Ferns Sevens won gold in Tokyo three years ago.
Following a year in which they dominated the series once again, New Zealand finishing the SVNS regular season as League Winners and Australia taking the Championship in Madrid, they will be favourites to be celebrating at the Stade de France come Tuesday.
But they won’t have everything their own way in Paris. Hosts France – silver medallists three years ago – were SVNS Championship runners-up having finished third in the regular season standings and will be spurred on by a vociferous home crowd.
Tokyo bronze medallists Fiji, USA, Canada and Ireland will all fancy their chances of causing an upset while in-form China, Great Britain – fourth at both previous Games – South Africa, Japan and Brazil will all believe they can make the podium.
Black Ferns Sevens target gold
New Zealand won the final four tournaments of the SVNS regular season to edge Australia to the League Winners title.
And although they had to settle for third place at the Grand Final in Madrid, Cory Sweeney’s side will be confident they can secure back-to-back Olympic titles in Paris.
Sweeney has been able to call on eight players from the squad that won gold at Tokyo 2020, including co-captain Sarah Hirini, who has recovered from the ACL injury she suffered in Dubai last December to make the flight to France.
For two of Hirini’s oldest team-mates, all-time leading Olympic try-scorer Portia Woodman-Wickliffe and leading SVNS points-scorer Tyla King, Paris 2024 will be their final involvement with the Black Ferns Sevens.
“We’re going to try and do something that’s never been done before, trying to create history while enjoying the moment,” Hirini said this week.
“I’m really proud that we will be playing in front of huge crowds, that’s the most important thing that we can achieve as a sport for the sevens.
“I was here for the men’s World Cup last year and being in that packed stadium is going to be electric.”
The Black Ferns Sevens will get their Pool A campaign underway against China in the final match of the opening session on Sunday (kick-off 18:00 local time, GMT+2).
New Zealand will then play Canada later on day one before their meeting with Fijiana brings the curtain down on the pool stage at 16:30 local time on Monday.
Before New Zealand play China on day one, Fiji and Canada will take to the Stade de France pitch in a match that should prove crucial to both sides’ hopes of reaching the medal quarter-finals.
Although Canada finished one place and 12 points above Fijiana in the SVNS regular season standings, before coming fourth in Madrid, it is their opponents who have won four of their most recent five meetings.
Neither can China be ruled out of contention in Pool A, having surged to series qualification by winning 21 of their 22 matches across the World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2024 and SVNS Play-off.
Australia aim to give Smale “fairytale finish”
Australia will hope they can maintain the momentum that helped them claim the SVNS Championship at the beginning of last month as they bid to regain the Olympic crown.
Tim Walsh’s side beat New Zealand in the semi-finals in Madrid, where they also saw off France, Ireland, Fiji and Canada en route to glory.
Veteran Sharni Smale – one of two survivors from the Rio 2016 winning squad alongside captain Charlotte Caslick – has the opportunity to crown her remarkable sevens career with another gold medal.
Caslick is certainly hoping to help her old mate bow out in the best way possible.
“All the teams will be going for gold, but we have got the legend Sharni Smale and we would love to send her off with a fairytale finish as well as winning the gold,” she said.
“We obviously all want to win but have this extra motivation!”
Australia’s hopes in Paris could hinge on the form of Maddison Levi, who made her international debut at Tokyo 2020, and whether Caslick and Co. can create space for the try-scoring machine to excel.
Levi scored three tries in Tokyo and has gone on to become the fastest Australian woman to score 100 tries on the series. She crossed the whitewash an incredible 69 times during SVNS 2024.
Australia get their Pool B campaign underway against South Africa in the second match of day one, after Ireland and Great Britain have opened the women’s tournament (kick-off 15:30 local time).
The Rio 2016 champions will then play Great Britain later on day one before a blockbuster encounter with Ireland at 14:30 local time on Monday.
Although they claimed their first-ever series tournament victory in Perth at the end of January, Ireland endured a disappointing SVNS campaign and finished the regular season seventh.
Seeded fifth they have high hopes for their Olympic debut, though, and will be confident the likes of Amee Leigh Murphy Crowe, Eve Higgins and Béíbhínn Parsons can propel them onto the podium.
Great Britain might have finished eighth in both the SVNS regular season and Grand Final but they have rich Olympic pedigree, having been fourth in Rio and Tokyo, while Red Roses Ellie Kildunne and Meg Jones have bolstered their ranks.
Meanwhile, South Africa will also make their Olympic debut in Paris and the Springbok Women’s Sevens will be keen to end a difficult season, in which they lost their core series status, on a high.
Can USA stop hosts France?
Following a season in which they came agonising close, on three occasions, to securing a first series tournament victory, France will hope to scale the top step of the Olympic podium on home soil.
Les Bleues Sevens were beaten by a brilliant New Zealand performance in the gold medal match at Tokyo 2020, but they have become one of the most consistent teams in SVNS since then.
Seven of the players selected by head coach David Courteix for Paris 2024 were part of the silver medal-winning squad three years ago, including Anne-Cécile Ciofani who scored 33 tries during SVNS 2024 – a French single-season record.
Given her parents were both Olympians, it should perhaps come as no surprise that Ciofani has followed in their footsteps and onto sport’s grandest stage.
The hosts will get their Pool B campaign underway against Brazil on day one (kick-off 17:00 local time), a team they have beaten in 23 of their 24 meetings, before playing Japan later on Sunday. France have won 15 of 16 encounters with the Sakura Sevens.
It is Les Bleues Sevens’ meeting with USA on Monday (kick-off 15:30 local time) that could have the biggest bearing on who tops Pool B, however.
The teams have met 34 times to date, with France winning 16 and the Women’s Eagles Sevens taking the remaining 18, albeit the hosts have won three of the last five.
USA possess a squad packed full of experience – Lauren Doyle and Alev Kelter are set to appear at a third Games – and they have been a consistent force on the series, reaching a Cup final as recently as Hong Kong in April.
Women’s Eagles Sevens co-captain Naya Tapper, meanwhile, will not be overawed by a potentially hostile crowd on Monday.
Due to the pandemic, Tapper made her Olympic debut at an empty Tokyo National Stadium three years ago and is relishing stepping out onto the Stade de France pitch.
“Having so many fans in the stadium is both exciting and somehow scary, at least for me,” she said. “Tokyo 2020 was great but we didn’t have the fans in the stands cheering or booing for us so I’m getting ready for that stimulation.
“We have been preparing and are definitely looking forward to begin.”
USA will make their Paris 2024 entrance against Japan in the third match of day one (kick-off 16:30 local time).
One of Japan’s two victories in the fixture came in their most recent meeting in Singapore and the Sakura Sevens will hope a repeat of that result on Sunday can help propel them into the medal quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Monday’s meeting between Brazil and Japan could prove pivotal to both nations’ hopes. As Yara lead the head-to-head nine victories to five and have won all three of the matches played in 2024.
