Sevens: Winning New Zealand sides battered, but beaming after Sydney success

  • 04/02/2019

The victorious Black Ferns and All Blacks Sevens teams have arrived home, after completing the double at the latest round of the World Series in Sydney.

Fresh off extending their winning run to a staggering seven consecutive tournaments and 48 straight wins, the Black Ferns don't play again until April, when the women's series resumes in Japan.

Skipper Sarah Hirini believes the break could be a blessing in disguise.

"With the girls having niggles, it's nice that they can have some time to refresh and hopefully get their injuries right before Japan," Hirini said.

She refused to buy into suggestions the extended time-off may stunt their momentum.

"Our training is centralised now, so we're able to get good growth with limited time anyway.

"First and foremost, we want to get our injuries right, and then we'll be able to keep growing and going forward as a team."

The Black Ferns situation's in stark contrast to their male counterparts. The All Blacks Sevens are due to play four tournaments over the next couple of months, starting in Las Vegas on March 1.

For now, they're just savouring beating the USA for the first time this series and washing the bitter aftertaste of the Hamilton defeat out of their mouths.

"Obviously, we hate losing in our home tournament," said Sam Dickson. "It was good to get the US in the final and you could probably see there was a bit of a chip on our shoulders there.

"We really took it to them and ended up getting the win, so we were stoked about that."

The next month will give both sides a chance to get key squad members back to full fitness.

Tyla Nathan-Wong missed the final two days of the women's tournament with an ankle injury, while All-Blacks Sevens veteran Tim Mikkelson was ruled out with concussion.

Newshub.