Canada Finish 5th at Cape Town 7s – Next up Perth in January
It’s a big improvement for Canada, going from 8th in Dubai to 5th in Cape Town. Along the way they defeated Great Britain 27-12 and Japan 22-7. Japan defeated Canada twice in Dubai, so the Cape Town result shows the growth the team have had in between tournaments. The next challenge will be Perth in January, 24-26.
Canada are now tied in the 6th/7th spot with Japan, both teams are at 18 points, Ireland are in 8th with 16 points. They’re starting to expand the gap between the bottom four teams who will have to play in the relegation tournament in LA. Currently China are at 7 pts, Brazil 6pts, Fiji 4pts and Spain 3pts.
from World Rugby
South Africa and New Zealand crowned HSBC SVNS Cape Town champions
Hosts South Africa beat Olympic champions France 26-14 to win a thriller of a men’s final and claim their first HSBC SVNS title in Cape Town in nine years, while New Zealand beat USA 26-12 to take women’s title and lead the SVNS standings
- South Africa men delight huge crowd to win first HSBC SVNS Cape Town title since 2015 with 26-14 victory over Olympic champions France
- New Zealand comeback from two tries down to defeat the USA 26-12 in thrilling women’s final
- France beat Australia 17-14 for women’s bronze, while Fiji claim men’s bronze with 47-10 win over Spain in repeat of Dubai final
- New Zealand and Fiji lead the women’s and men’s SVNS standings after two rounds with four rounds remaining before the HSBC SVNS World Championship in Los Angeles
- The third round of HSBC SVNS 2025 takes place in Perth on 24-26 January, tickets are available at svns.com
Hosts South Africa beat Olympic champions France 26-14 to win a thriller of a men’s final and claim their first HSBC SVNS title in Cape Town in nine years.
New Zealand came back from two tries down to beat the USA 26-12 in an end-to-end women’s final to bounce back from their final disappointment in Dubai and take an early lead in the HSBC SVNS standings ahead of the break before Perth hosts the third round in January.
France beat Dubai champions Australia 17-14 for women’s bronze, while Fiji claimed the men’s bronze with a convincing 47-10 win over Spain in a repeat of last weekend’s Dubai final.
With Springboks captain Siya Kolisi cheering on enthusiastically from the sidelines, a breathless first-half of the men’s final ended even at 14-14, as the two sides traded tries. Celian Pouzelgues, in just his second tournament, opened the scoring for Les Bleus.
To the vociferous delight of the home crowd, Donavan Don and Zain Davids hit back before Varian Pasquet went over in the corner on the stroke of halftime. Nerveless Paulin Riva landed the conversion from out wide.
HSBC Player of the Final Shilton van Wyk then won a foot race to the line, despite the attentions of the French defence – and he then released David Brits to extend the home side’s lead and secure their first HSBC SVNS title on home soil since 2015.
South Africa reached the final thanks to a hard-fought 19-12 win over impressive Spain, while France overcame Fiji 19-17 in a nail-biting repeat of the Olympic gold medal match.
South Africa men’s co-captain Zain Davids said: “I think you can see the guys are [already] celebrating. We really wanted this. The guys showed a lot of heart out there – we played for each other.”
South Africa men’s co-captain Impey Visser added: “It’s just incredible. It’s been nine years since we last won it so it’s great to break the curse and give the people of Cape Town something to really celebrate.”
“We knew that we have a special group of players, but we came up a bit short last week in Dubai. Some new guys came in and really stepped up this week. We’re building something really special and once we have that self-belief we can really go to that number one spot.”
The Eagles gave the Black Ferns Sevens an early scare in an exciting women’s final, but experience told, as they pulled away in the second half.
Nia Tolliver raced clear to score her seventh Cape Town try as USA sprinted into a 12-0 lead in the opening three minutes of a dramatic, end-to-end showpiece match.
New Zealand fired back before the break, taking a two-point lead courtesy of scores from HSBC Player of the Final Jorja Miller and Jazmin Felix-Hotham.
Kelsey Teneti added a third midway through the second half to extend the Black Ferns’ Sevens lead and Dhys Faleafaga then finished off a patient edge-to-edge attacking move to take the Olympic champions out of sight with a 26-12 victory.
The women’s semi-finals saw the USA again get the better of Australia, as they did in the Olympic bronze medal match, coming out 24-19 winners to reach today’s final. New Zealand’s Black Ferns Sevens were in unstoppable form, cruising past France 43-0 to reach the final in style.
New Zealand women’s captain Sarah Hirini said “I’m so happy! We were pretty disappointed with last weekend but I’m absolutely stoked here. We’re going home with goodies for Christmas! I’m very proud of our group, with three debutants in there.”
“Look at all the All Black jerseys, all the Black Ferns Sevens jerseys in the stadium. We love Cape Town, we love South Africa and they always turn out for us.”
Crowds of more than 75,000 enjoyed the sun-soaked festival atmosphere and enthralling rugby sevens action across two days at DHL Stadium, and they also witnessed the setting of a new world record for the biggest collective Ampiano dance performed on the pitch prior to Sunday’s finals.
A new player welfare focused competition format was debuted in Cape Town and there was no shortage of excitement as every match counted from start to finish for those all important ranking points.
Following the results in Cape Town, New Zealand and Fiji lead the women’s and men’s HSBC SVNS 2025 standings respectively after two rounds. New Zealand have opened a four point gap over rivals Australia ahead of their home event in Perth, with France a further two points behind. Meanwhile Fiji are four points ahead of an impressively consistent Spain outfit in second, with France and South Africa a further two points adrift.
The worlds best 12 men’s and women’s teams now take a short festive break before returning for the third round of HSBC SVNS 2025 in Perth on 24-26 January for what promises to a bumper three-day event at HBF Park.
The HSBC SVNS Perth pool draw is set to take place early in the new year and following a sold-out finals day last-time out fans are encouraged to secure their tickets early to avoid disappointment. Tickets are currently available from AUD $30 at svns.com.
HSBC SVNS PERTH INFORMATION >>
HSBC SVNS 2025 features seven events across seven months in seven iconic global destinations. Six regular season rounds will be played in Dubai, Cape Town, Perth, Vancouver, Hong Kong and Singapore to decide the HSBC SVNS League Winners, before the HSBC SVNS World Championship in Los Angeles, which will see the top eight men’s and women’s teams compete at Dignity Health Sports Park which will host the LA 2028 Olympic rugby sevens.
Canada Into the 5th to 8th Semis on Day 2: Face Great Britain at 12:06am
Day 1 played out as expected for the Canadian women, they easily defeated Brazil but couldn’t put a dent in Australia despite having a 2 person advantage for a while. They’ll face Great Britain in the 5-8 semis, Japan face Ireland in the other 5-8 semi. Teams making the 1-4 cup semis are Australia, NZ, France, USA.
In the men’s competition Spain continue to excel making the 1-4 semi-finals again along with South Africa, Fiji and France.
from World Rugby
POOL A – Dangerous Australia ease into last four
Australia survived being reduced to five players for more than a minute unscathed as they beat Canada 26-10 to continue their unbeaten run in this HSBC SVNS series. Tia Hinds, Heidi Dennis, Mackenzie Davis, and Sariah Paki all scored as the Dubai winners maintained their hopes of a second title in as many weeks.
Australia’s second outing of the day was also notable that Maddison Levi failed to get on the scoreboard for the first time in 27 matches.
She had earlier taken her try tally this season to 18 with a hat-trick as Australia beat Brazil 45-5. Heidi Dennis added two of her own in a confident opening at DHL Stadium. Yasmim Soares got the consolation try for Brazil.
Six Canadian players got on the scoresheet – Carissa Norsten contributing two – as they beat a plucky Brazil 43-17 in the opening match of the day. Thalia Costa, who else?, got a brace for the South Americans to get within five of 100 international touchdowns
Canada Kick Off Cape Town at 12:06am PT Against Brazil
It may be one of the most important games for Canada women in the new 2024-25 series, it likely will determine if they’re competing in the 5-8 bracket or the 9-12 bracket at the tournament unless they can pull off the unexpected and defeated #1 Australia. Canada don’t want to be in the 9-12 relegation bracket with only four more tournaments after Cape Town.
Canada start their tournament against Brazil and then face Australia, the top team will enter the 1-4 semis, the second team will enter the 5-8 semis and the 3rd team will face the 9-12 pool. With Canada already sitting in 8th place they really don’t want to be in the 9-12 bracket after Day 1. They defeated Brazil easily in Dubai so it’s looking positive to get the necessary win, the match against Australia may be a little too optimistic but in 7s an upset is always possible.
Match schedule and results are here.
CANADA’S WOMEN’S SEVENS TEAM ROSTER
4. Breanne Nicholas (Blenheim, ON) – Kent Havoc RFC
8. Carmen Izyk (High River, AB) – Rugby Club Toulon Provence Méditerranée
11. Piper Logan (Calgary, AB) – Calgary Hornets / University of British Columbia
17. Camille Arvin-Bérod (Saint-Denis-Sur-Richelieu, QC) – Montreal Irish / Laval University / Lons Section Paloise
19. Carissa Norsten (Waldheim, SK) – Kirin RFC / University of Victoria
20. Maya Addai (Ottawa, ON) – Westshore RFC / University of Victoria
21. Adia Pye (Victoria, BC) – Castaway Wanderers
23. Shalaya Valenzuela (Abbotsford, BC) – Abbotsford RFC
24. Asia Hogan-Rochester (Toronto, ON) – Toronto Nomads / Westshore RFC
25. Shoshanah Seumanutafa (White Rock, BC) – Counties Manukau
26. Savannah Bauder (North Vancouver, BC) – University of British Columbia
29. Mahalia Robinson (Fulford, QC) – Town of Mount Royal RFC
55. Monique Coffey (Dauphin, MB) – Scion Sirens
99. Pamphinette Buisa (Gatineau, QC) – Ottawa Irish