The New Zealand women's sevens team made it through to the USA Women's Sevens Final this morning after they beat Canada 28-19 in their semi-final at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado. In the final, they defeated hosts USA 33-7 in a commanding performance.
The sounds of celebration resounded as Portia Woodman led the Black Ferns in their haka "Ngā rongo toa".
Captain Sarah Goss says, "I was really proud of the girls' efforts. We've been together for a couple of weeks now so to be able to put up performances like that, we're pretty stoked heading into the World Series."
In a dominant performance, the Black Ferns secured a back-to-back title and their 28th consecutive win at the HSBC Women’s Sevens USA.
"We have some amazing players in our team and we're really thankful that we've got the speed on the outside," says Goss.
It was the host nation who opened the scoring, with American first-five Nicole Heavirland scoring from 20 metres out. However, this was quickly countered by Ngāpuhi descendant Portia Woodman scoring two tries, with Captain Sarah Goss putting one more on the board just after the half-time whistle.
Goss says, "Every team has worked hard in their pre-season. Women's rugby is walking an amazing road. I can't wait for teams to get better and better and the competition to get tougher and tougher. It was amazing here in Glendale."
The USA Eagles found it hard to make up ground on the Black Ferns, centre Niall Williams scoring her first try off the back of the break and Woodman hammering it home with her hat-trick.
The final score was an emphatic 33-7 to the Black Ferns Sevens who now set their sights on Dubai at the end of next month.