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Find your Sport Nation frequencyBlack Ferns Sevens cruise past Australia to clinch world championship
Melissa Woods, AAP • May 5th, 2025 1:00 pm
Photo: Photosport
Australia women's sevens side have been unable to defend their world championship title, thumped by a dominant New Zealand in the final of the Los Angeles tournament.
The Australians were outplayed 31-7 by the Kiwis, who also won the regular season title after taking out the last three rounds to relegate the green and gold to runner-up.
It was sweet revenge for New Zealand, who were eliminated by Australia in the semi-finals of last year's world championship in Madrid.
The Olympic champions got off to a flying start with Jorja Miller opening the scoring in the first minute when she out-paced Teagan Levi to touch down.
The New Zealanders then showed their strength in defence to stonewall the Aussie attack before turning over the ball, with Michaela Brake giving her side a 12-0 lead at halftime.
Exciting youngster Mackenzie Davis, who was also a standout in defence, gave the Australians a sniff by scoring a try early in the second half.
But the remainder of the match was one-way traffic as Australia struggled to get their superstar Maddison Levi, the season's top tryscorer, into the game.
Risi Pouri-Lane hit straight back to push the margin out to 10 points before Mahina Paul put the result out of reach, scoring for a 24-7 lead.
Sarah Hirini then ran on to a Miller off-load with the Black Ferns sevens captain punching the air in delight after she touched down at the venue for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
"Man that feels good, I'm so happy, it's nice to be able to take that trophy back home," 32-year-old Hirini told Stan Sport.
"I don't show too much emotion but I probably showed how much it meant to this group.
"After the Olympic gold medal we wanted to show that we were a great team and to us that was winning the league and winning the series and we did it."
Earlier Australia's men lost the fifth place showdown against France 33-7.
