The Black Ferns sevens team have come from behind to beat Australia 22-21 in a thrilling finale to the World Series event in New Jersey, USA this morning.
Trailing by 21-5 in the second half against their big rivals, New Zealand scored tries through Alena Saili and Kelsey Teneti, before Saili made the break which led to Katelyn Vahaakolo’s crucial try in the final seconds.
Fortunately, the score was near enough to the posts to give Risi Pouri-Lane, who had missed all three of her previous attempts, a reasonable chance of kicking the conversion and she coolly did so to put her team ahead.
It is the first time in the history of the women’s world series that a Cup final has been decided by one point.
Australia, who have lost only five times this season – all to New Zealand in Cup finals – still had a chance to do something miraculous at the end but a near perfect kick-off from the Black Ferns put the Aussies under pressure near the sideline and the game for them was lost.
Earlier, the women in green and gold put the Black Ferns under enormous pressure with their defence and they needed few chances to break New Zealand’s line.
Teneti had put the Black Ferns ahead with the first possession of the game but a Maddi Levi try under the posts after a defensive mix up put Australia ahead and back-to-back tries from her sister Teagan had the Kiwis in trouble.
Saili’s try out wide gave an injury-hit New Zealand a foothold and, while they were not at their best attacking-wise, they took full advantage due to a new-found accuracy.
New Zealand’s dominance in the series was such that they had it won even before the final day of the tournament. Now that they put an exclamation point on the last weekend of the series, they will turn their attention to the world championships.
Skipper Pouri-Lane said afterwards: “We knew it was going to be about heart. Finals footy can go either way.
“We spoke about being critical and making sure we were doing the simple things well… we knew if we stuck to the basics… we knew what we needed to do to try to shut them down.
“The exciting thing about this team is that there is so much depth and so much potential – most of that is untouched at the moment.”
Jorja Miller, outstanding in the Cup final victory over Australia in Vancouver last weekend, did not have the space on attack she has become used to but attracted attention and was a threat even without the ball.
South Africa beat Fiji 10-7 in the men's Cup final.
The New Zealand men lost a playoff for fifth against France.
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