Gold medal winners New Zealand women's and men's teams join for a group photo. Photo credit: Mike Lee - KLC fotos for World Rugby
The Black Ferns and All Black Sevens have both triumphed in the latest leg of the World Sevens Series in South Africa. The women beat Australia 17-7 and the men got home 7-5 against South Africa.
In front of 55,000 at Cape Town Stadium, the mens and womens sides combined for a memorable day, that also doubled as the final competition for 2019.
For the Black Ferns, the win was a special one as they had been noticeably understrength with the absence of Portia Woodman, Michaela Blyde and regular captain Sarah Hirini. They made hard work of their pool games leading in, and their quarter final against England went to extra time before they won 26-21.
However, they found their groove against Canada a few hours later in their semi final, winning 15-5. That set up a final against a strong Australian team.
The series champions had made the better start to the 16th Cup final meeting between the two most successful women's teams, Kelly Brazier stepping her way through the Australia defence to score the opening try and pass through the 500-point milestone in the process.
Shannon Parry was then adjudged to have knocked on rather than blocked a Brazier kick and New Zealand capitalised, a strong run by Alena Saili creating the opportunity for Ruby Tui to score their second try for a 12-0 half-time lead.
Ellia Green skipping past the diving Niall Williams to sprint away for her 130th series try, quickly adding the conversion herself to get her side back in the game.
The Olympic champions began to build some pressure but couldn't find a way through and instead New Zealand wrapped up victory when Player of the Final Tui handed off Cassie Staples to score her second try.
Black Ferns Sevens captain Tyla Nathan-Wong, playing her record 27th Cup final on the series,
“This crowd, this atmosphere, it’s incredible to be here in Cape Town for the very first time as a women’s team. To play South Africa, especially, in the very first game, it’s just amazing.
“I’m so proud of these girls. We didn’t start the tournament how we wanted to but we finished it doing what we wanted to do. These last two weeks have just been everything, the girls have worked so hard and we pulled through in the end.
Straight afterwards, the men took the field for their final against the host nation, South Africa. They got there by defeating Scotland 35-19 in the quarter final, then dominating Fiji 24-7 in the semi.
In a low-scoring game, both teams scored one try each in second half. Justin Geduld got the Blitz Bokke on the board in the ninth minute after a kick through was fumbled at the back. After the amount of tackling done by both sides, it seemed like that might be enough, but Ngarohi McGarvey-Black put on a stunning bit of footwork close to the line to score under the posts. The conversion was the ultimate difference between the two teams, meaning both men’s and women’s teams could stand side by side on the podium.
All Blacks Sevens co-captain Scott Curry said: “We knew it was going to be a tough fight and nil all at half-time I guess is fitting for a crowd like this. Cape Town has really turned it on and the support here is amazing – we really appreciate it and all the support back home has been massive.”