Hong Kong Sevens: familiar foes meet earlier than expected as New Zealand and Australia prepare for semi-final clash
- Black Ferns’ surprise defeat to France in pool stage brings last year’s finalists together game earlier than expected
- USA to take on France in second semi-final, with Anne-Cecile Ciofani saying side’s ‘know each other well’
Last year’s final has become this year’s semi-final at the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, with defending women’s champions New Zealand set for a meeting with their old rivals Australia a little earlier than expected.
The Australians are leading the way in the series’ overall season standings, but their trans-Tasman rivals are hot on their heels, just four points behind.
Most would have expected the pair to be kept apart until Sunday evening, but the Black Ferns lost their last pool game at Hong Kong Stadium to France, a surprise 26-21 defeat on Saturday pushing them to the other side of the draw.
Neither side were complaining as they prepared for a showdown they had long assumed was inevitable, and which is set up tantalisingly to almost certainly provide one of the must-watch moments of the tournament’s third and last day.
The Kiwis had regrouped and refocused by the time they were next in action in a quarter-final tie against Canada later on Saturday afternoon. They wasted little time in dismantling their opponents, eventually winning 26-5.
Shiray Kaka, one of their Olympic gold medal-winners, got them up and running in the second minute. The sevens veteran then added another score, a minute after teammate Jojo Miller had got in on the act.
Enjoying a 21-point cushion at half-time, they comfortably saw out the second half.
“To get [two tries] in the first half, I thought I emptied the tank a little bit early,” Kaka said. “But we kept pushing and the crowd helped – we’ve got some of our girls from New Zealand who are here cheering us on.”
Kaka said she was relishing the chance to play Australia again, whatever stage of proceedings the draw determined that would be, because the pair “always put on a good show”.
Australia, who are yet to lose this weekend, started their quarter-final against Japan immediately after the Kiwis left the field.
In a nervy affair, it took until the final minute of the first half for Tia Hinds to cross for the green-and-gold, and that took her side into the break 5-0 up.
Teagan Levi eventually extended the series leaders’ advantage and it stayed 12-0 despite her teammate Sariah Paki being shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on at a time when the Japanese were throwing everything they had at it.
“To be honest, I was just looking at the player,” Paki said. “It is what is, that’s sevens. You’ve got to move on quickly.
“[Japan are] a team that are always working hard, chasing, doing the non-negotiable things. We just had to outwork them and outsmart them as well. It was a grind.”
Elsewhere in the quarter-finals, the USA were as ruthless as they were accomplished in humbling Fiji 33-7 to set up a semi-final against France that is well poised, too.
“Our intention was to play as a unit and to have control on defence and when a seam opened up to really attack it,” Alev Ketler said of the Fiji demolition job following her contribution of a try and four conversions. “I thought we did that well.”
France dismissed Ireland 31-7 in an utterly dominant performance of their own to keep their unblemished record for the tournament intact.
Anne-Cecile Ciofani was the first to cross the whitewash and she doubled her tally in the seventh minute.
Looking forward to the semi-final against the Americans, the 30-year-old noted that the two sets of players “know each other very well”, which can work for or against a side.
“We’ll have a rest tonight, and then watch the videos and review our strategy,” Ciofani said.
That game of familiarity with the USA women will usher in the semi-finals stage at 12.54pm on Sunday, to be followed by the top-of-the-table clash.
