New Zealand Comeback From Two Tries Down

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 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.