Black Ferns captain Sarah Goss and team mates celebrate winning the Sevens World Cup. Photo / Photosport
Black Ferns captain Sarah Goss and team mates celebrate winning the Sevens World Cup. Photo / Photosport
Undeniable world champions, for the second straight time.
The Black Ferns Sevens are celebrating history being made after dominating the women's field at the Sevens World Cup in San Francisco, thumping France 29-0 in the grand final to become the first team to win back-to-back World Cup titles.
The New Zealand women capped of their destructive run at the weekend exactly the way they began – keeping their opponents scoreless.
The Commonwealth Games gold medalists kept a clean sheet in their day one thumpings of Mexico and Ireland, before a gutsy come-from-behind semifinal victory over a fiery USA team, buoyed on by a loud home support base at the AT&T Park baseball stadium.
France shot through unexpectedly to the final after upsetting reigning Olympic and World Series champions Australia, but were no match for a Black Ferns Sevens team riding their own wave of momentum – 27 straight wins before the final.
Michaela Blyde dotted down for a hat-trick in the decider to finish with nine for the tournament, becoming the top tryscorer from the two-day women's event.
Overall, the Black Ferns Sevens scored 157 points in their four games this weekend, and remarkably only conceded 21.
Captain Sarah Goss says it concludes a highly successful season.
"Extremely proud, not just of this weekend but the whole season, obviously it started off a little bit shaky but to win two pinnacle events in one year I'm extremely proud and very, very grateful to have such amazing sisters and management around me.
"Just seeing girls step up and have a lot of fun is all you can ask for, and I think we've done the black jersey extremely proud."
Niall Williams celebrates with try scorer Michaela Blyde. Photosport
Goss, and teammates Portia Woodman, Tyla Nathan-Wong and Kelly Brazier returned from the team's triumphant World Cup title in 2013.
But, more significantly, Goss, Woodman and Brazier, along with Stacey Waaka and Theresa Fitzpatrick, were crowned world champions in the 15-a-side game with the Black Ferns less than 12 months ago.
Brazier has two 15-a-side world titles to her name, and as a longstanding foundation of both teams, has often flown under the radar as tryscoring superstars like Woodman and Blyde grab much of the attention.
She says the culture in the current Black Ferns sevens outfit is unique.
"Everyone's real. We genuinely love each other, we genuinely are family.
"You sit down on your couch at five o'clock at home on the weekend and you have a message from one of the girls in the team who wants to hang out, so I think we genuinely like each other and get along, and what happens off the field shows the connections on the field."
A humble head coach Allan Bunting did his best to avoid the limelight after the World Cup win – attempting to sneak past the waiting throng of media as the team exited through the tunnel.
Goss says that's just the nature of the reigning World Rugby sevens coach of the year.
"That's him, he sits in the background, he does all the work in preparation for tournaments and once we get to each tournament he sits back and lets us do what we do.
"He's awesome – our whole management team are awesome – obviously we're really proud to bring that cup home for them."
After a long and challenging season entailing a full world series, a Commonwealth Games and a World Cup, Goss is looking forward to a six week break.
"I'm looking forward to spending time with my fiancé and my dog and hopefully get down to Palmy to see my family as well because that's going to be extremely important heading into next season."
The All Blacks Sevens are also on course to defend their title after completing a dramatic comeback victory on day two in San Francisco today.
The men's team booked a clash with Fiji in tomorrow's semifinals, after a 12-7 quarter-final victory over France where they earned more yellow cards than tries. Despite having three men sent from the field in the opening half, New Zealand held onto only trail 7-0 before tries to Kurt Baker and Joe Ravouvou secured the win.
