Black Ferns Sevens star Tyla Nathan-Wong is "gutted" her 'Sevens Sisters' couldn't celebrate their World Cup win alongside their male counterparts.
The NZ women trounced France 29-0 in the World Cup sevens final at San Francisco's AT&T Park on Sunday (NZT) to defend the title they won five years ago in Russia.
Little more than 24 hours later, the All Blacks Sevens achieved the same feat, beating England 33-12 in the men’s final.
Nathan-Wong said that nothing could take away the gloss off their victory, but she questioned World Rugby's decision to stage the two finals on separate days.
"Gutted that we couldn't play alongside our men," Nathan-Wong told Newshub on Tuesday.
"It would have been incredible to be out there, either before or after them.
"Just to celebrate with them afterwards, given the year we have both had with Commonwealth gold and World Cup, it would have been cool to share that with them.
"We caught the semi-final at the stadium against Fiji. What an amazing game that was, and we were cheering hard and yelling for them.
"We were on our way to the airport when the final was played. We were all packed around a couple of iPhones and watched them play - so proud of them to get the back-to-back."
Nathan-Wong hopes the schedule will a men’s and women’s double feature in future tournaments.
The 24-year-old missed out on celebrating with her teammates when they won Commonwealth Games gold on the Gold Coast earlier this year.
Nathan-Wong suffered an injury during warm-ups and spent the final in an ambulance.
But there were no such let-downs in San Francisco, as she played a pivotal role in New Zealand's runaway success.
The Aucklander said the winning culture within the side had taken two years to create since a heartbreaking loss to Australia in the Rio Olympic final.
"It's incredible what we have been able to achieve this last couple years," Nathan-Wong said. "This team is amazing.
"That [Rio] was pretty tough. We had a bit of a management shift.
"Our assistant coach from Rio [Allan Bunting] is now our head coach and he has created such an incredible culture within our team.
"Everyone buys into it and that’s the big thing. We are all there for each other and we have each other's backs, no matter what.
"That trust in our team is big and it gets shown out on the field through our performance.
"[Sarah Goss] leads by example really well. We have a really good leadership group and we all work together."
The team now has a six-week break before heading back into camp ahead of the IRB World Series circuit, which kicks off in October in the United States.
Newshub.
