International rugby sevens returned to thrill the huge crowds at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai as Australia women and Fiji men ran out winners to take an early lead in the HSBC SVNS standings.

Fiji beat Spain 19-5 to lift the men’s trophy and claim their first SVNS tournament victory since Toulouse in 2022, and their first in Dubai since 2016. Argentina claimed the men’s bronze medals with a convincing 14-0 win over New Zealand.

Australia secured an incredible fifth successive women’s tournament victory in Dubai but they had to work hard for it in an epic final against Olympic champions New Zealand which finished 28-24. France overcame Great Britain 15-12 to take home the women’s bronze medals.

Olympic silver medallists Fiji looked back to their scintillating best and turned on the style to thrash Argentina 43-21 in the semi-final, having earlier overcome reigning Olympic champions France 19-17 in a tense quarter-final.

Fiji coach Osea Kolinisau was delighted his side had broken their long run without a title: “It’s been a long time coming,” he said.

“ I’m so happy for the boys. I’m so happy that we’ve got the monkey off our back now.

Spain were impressive throughout the weekend and made history by reaching their first ever cup final thanks to a superb 19-14 victory over New Zealand in the semi-final, following a quarter-final win against Great Britain by the same scoreline earlier in the day.

WOMEN

Australia reached the women’s final courtesy of convincing wins over Great Britain 35-7 in the semi-final and 39-0 against Olympic silver medallists Canada in the quarter-final.

Australia’s new captain Isabella Nasser said: “I’m sort of lost for words,” she said. “I’m proud of the girls. We have such a tight-knit group – the young ones really showed up today and I’m sure they will for the rest of the season. The best is yet to come.

“The Black Ferns are always such a hard team (to play). They always show up and we have such a good rivalry.”

New Zealand progressed to the final thanks to a 28-14 semi-final victory over France and seeing off Ireland 33-12 in the quarter-final.

New records

Following a ground-breaking Olympic Games in Paris that saw more than 530,000 fans witness rugby sevens, the eagerly anticipated new season of SVNS began in great fashion with two days of non-stop dynamic action on the pitch and spectacular entertainment off it.

FRESH TALENT

With 91 debutant players selected across the 12 men’s and 12 women’s squads there was an array of fresh talent on show alongside some of the biggest stars of the sport including Australia’s Maddison Levi who was awarded HSBC World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year last Sunday and broke the record for tries in a single SVNS tournament this weekend, crossing the line 15 times in six matches.

The event also saw Ireland’s Aimee Leigh Murphy Crowe joined an elite club by scoring her 200th SVNS Series try while Australia’s own try machine Faith Nathan claimed her 100th try on day one in Dubai.

All 24 teams move directly on to Cape Town for the second round of HSBC SVNS 2025 on 7-8 December. A new competition format will see the 12 teams in four pools of three teams with the pool winners advancing directly to semi-finals and a chance to reach the medal podium in Cape Town.

CAPE TOWN POOLS

The pools for Cape Town were allocated based on rankings at the end of the Dubai tournament.

MEN’S

Pool A: Fiji, Great Britain, Uruguay. Pool B Spain, Australia and Kenya. Pool C: Argentina, South Africa and Ireland. Pool D: New Zealand, France and USA.

WOMEN’S

Pool A: Australia, Canada and Brazil. Pool B: New Zealand, Japan and China. Pool C: France, Ireland and Spain. Pool D: Great Britain, USA and Fiji.

– World Rugby 

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