BLACK FERNS SEVENS: THE GREATEST TEAM OF ALL
The Black Ferns Sevens appeared to be a mile behind Australia at the halfway point of the 2023-24 SVNS international circuit.
Winless in three tournaments, a cup quarter-final exit in Perth was one of their worst results. To add insult to injury, talismanic skipper Sarah Hirini had been ruled out with a knee complaint for an indefinite period.
Yet on Sunday, the Black Ferns Sevens wrapped up their eighth SVNS league title since 2012/13 with a stunning 31-21 victory over Australia in the Singapore Cup final.
Tied with Australia on 106 points in the series standings, the Black Ferns went on to win the last four tournaments successively to capture overall honours ahead of their trans-Tasman rivals.
In the Singapore decider, New Zealand was down 14-12 at halftime but some heroic play by Jorja Miller turned the tide black.
Upon the resumption, Isabella Nasser busted for Australia and galloped into space. Nasser was run down by Miller who wrenched a turnover near halfway and set Tysha Ikenasio free down the right wing. Ikenasio was caught by Kaitlin Shave agonisingly short of the paint. Theresa Setefano outpaced Aussie chasers to the ensuing ruck and skidded a pass across the grass which Michaela Blyde collected calmly and unmarked to complete a hat-trick.
Blyde holds the record for most SVNS final hat-tricks with six and finished the regular season as the Black Ferns leading try scorer with 52.
Blyde left the field exhausted shortly afterward. She had rushed 80m for the opening try and sprinted 50m just before the interval after Miller had offloaded in the grasp of the defence and into space. Blyde at her best is poetry in motion.
Australia had scored twice after Blyde’s initial strike with the potent Maddison Levi going coast to coast and Nasser tumbling over with momentum after an ankle tap by Miller, who’d saved a try with an act of desperation seconds earlier.
Miller became rampant at 19-14, turning provider twice more. Portia Woodman-Wickliffe powered clear from a deft Miller touch. Woodman-Wickliffe was tackled bravely by Faith Nathan just before the line, but Woodman-Wickliffe bounced back to her feet and couldn’t be stopped. Then a barging run and lob over the top by Miller had Stacey Waaka beaming her margarine-melting smile after scoring her 99th SVNS try.
Dual international Tyla King, and fellow Olympic gold medalist Shiray Kaka had been ruled out, injured, earlier in the tournament.
Desperate, dynamic, dashing, and clinical, this is what we’ve come to expect from the Black Ferns Sevens, a team that has dominated for a decade and continually reinvents itself. Miller is only 20, imperious already. Kaha has rejuvenated her career. The bench all contribute.
Are the Black Ferns Sevens New Zealand’s most successful female sports team, and best male team as well?
First, a qualification: A team for this article counts as a unit with more than three players, so that disqualifies the numerously wonderful rowing pairs New Zealand has had. Eric Murray and Hamish Bond won 69 races in a row.
The Black Ferns Fifteens have been phenomenally successful too, winning 103 out of 122 Test matches, including a record six Rugby World Cups. It will be argued that without the presence of five Black Ferns Sevens players, the 2022 Rugby World Cup triumph wouldn’t have happened. Overall, Sevens has led the way in shaping the direction of the female game in New Zealand.
The Black Ferns Sevens were officially launched in 2000. They have played in 78 tournaments, winning 49 and finishing runners-up 14 times. They have 410 wins in 454 matches (90 percent). The Black Ferns Sevens have had winning streaks of 50, 44, and 41 matches, numbers unrivalled by other women’s teams.
At the Rugby World Cup, they have the best record of any country in the four tournaments with 18 wins in 20 matches and overall triumphs in 2013 and 2018. In 2021 the Black Ferns Sevens won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, with eight of the team returning from the Rio silver medal.
The World Sevens Series (now SVNS) was launched in 2012. The Black Ferns supremacy has been emphatic.
New Zealand has won 35 of the 56 tournaments contested. They hold the records for most matches won (305) and points scored (9,519). The Black Ferns Sevens are responsible for 24 of the 67 defeats Australia, the next most successful team, has suffered. They have never lost to Fiji in 23 matches, Ireland in 20, and have only suffered one defeat in 35 games against perennial contenders Canada.
Individually, Tyla King holds the record for most SVNS points with 1423. Portia Woodman-Wickliffe (251) and Michaela Blyde (247) are the only players to have scored more than 200 tries. More tellingly, Woodman-Wickliffe has scored a record 36 tries in finals. Blyde has 32 with Australia’s Charlotte Caslick next with 13.
Anna Richards and Huriana Manuel are members of the World Rugby Hall of Fame for their exploits in both Sevens and Fifteens. In the future, Woodman-Wickliffe, Blyde, Hirini, Waaka, Kelly Brazier, Setefano, and Ruby Tui will almost certainly join Richards and Manuel in the Hall.
Except for Richards, all these players were among the pioneering cohort of professionals in New Zealand in 2013. Such success is a remarkable return on the original investment, and it’s been driven by an unashamedly and largely original player-driven culture. Head coach from 2016 to 2021 Alan Bunting is on record saying there were occasions where he didn’t even speak at halftime.
Tui wrote in her autobiography, Straight Up:
“The genius part of our leadership group is that we were completely different people, but we knew ourselves well enough to speak up when it counts, you just get the same views and group-think takes over. The fear of disagreement or hurting feelings becomes stronger than sticking up for what’s right, and that is a dangerous place.”
Will Hirni and Brazier even make it back following the latest run of success?
Would the Black Ferns Fifteens have won the 2022 Rugby World Cup without Hirini, Setefano, Tui, Waaka and Woodman-Wickliffe? Not a chance. Of the 43 tries the Black Ferns scored in the tournament 21 were scored by those five players. Sir Wayne Smith knew this and appointed Bunting as a culture advisor.
Culturally, the Black Ferns Sevens are a sensation. At the Olympics, their quirky, authentic, and energetic personalities caught the attention of American superstar rapper Snoop Dog. Tui’s Straight Up is the highest-selling female sports book in New Zealand history. The groundwork for Tui’s popularity was laid in Sevens.
Furthermore, these women have broken down barriers, with King dabbling in professional rugby league but deemed too valuable by NZR to lose. Hirini holds influential positions advocating player interests in the New Zealand Players Association and World Rugby. Waaka and Tui emulated leading All Blacks by taking sabbaticals to play professional Sevens in the USA.
The Black Ferns Sevens are box office, and such star power was necessary for World Rugby to take an unusual step of implementing fully combined and equal men’s and women’s series to align with the Olympic competition model.
World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin said in 2022: “Research insights have demonstrated that sevens plays a vital role in reaching and engaging new rugby fans, particularly in emerging rugby nations and with younger audiences…Moving to full gender parity between the men’s and women’s Series reflects not just our commitment to accelerating the women’s game, but also recognition of the powerful personalities who are inspiring a new generation of fans across the globe.”
Perhaps tennis is the only women’s sport where men and women are aligned similarly to SVNS.
In women’s sports globally, the American football and basketball teams and the Australian cricket team could match the Black Ferns Sevens in terms of dominance and influence.
Back to New Zealand. What about netball? Historically, netball has been the most popular female sport in New Zealand. The Silver Ferns have a proud history of winning five world championships but are far from New Zealand’s most successful team.
Withstanding golden eras under Dame Lois Muir (1974-1988: 91 wins in 107 tests) and Ruth Aitken (2002-2011: 97 wins in 112 tests) Australia has dominated the Silver Ferns. In 15 World Cup tournaments, Australia has never missed the final, winning 11 times.
The All Blacks Sevens have enjoyed wonderful success with 14 World Series, two Rugby World Cups, and four Commonwealth Games gold medal victories. However, the Black Ferns Sevens have arguably usurped the men in popularity. The All Blacks Sevens have won 104 of the 278 tournaments they’ve contested. The Black Ferns Sevens are nearly halfway to the All Blacks Sevens tournament win total, and the men started in 1973.
The Black Sox men’s softball team has a compelling case as New Zealand’s most successful team. They have won seven of the 17 World Series they have contested, an impressive 152 wins in 196 games. Between 1996 and 2004 they were virtually unbeatable.
Though the likes of Mark Sorenson and Marty Grant were truly great, they are not household names and softball has largely remained a minority sport. Tellingly though, coach Don Tricker became a High-Performance advisor to the All Blacks in two Rugby World Cup wins and a leading figure in guiding Olympians.
The All Blacks are the most successful international men’s rugby side of all time with a record of 489 out of 637 Tests won (76.77%) since 1903. In all matches, the All Blacks have won 1142 times in 1361 games (84%).
The All Blacks were the first rugby team to win 500 Test matches and consecutive Rugby World Cups in 2011 and 2015, adding to the inaugural Cup they claimed in 1987. They have also won 10 of the 16 Tri-Nations trophies, and seven of the nine Rugby Championships contested.
Since official rankings were initiated in 2003 the All Blacks have spent 743 weeks ranked world number one. The next longest period is South Africa (224 weeks). From 16 November 2009 to 19 August 2019 the All Blacks were ranked the world’s best for 509
In this span, Tony Woodcock, Owen Franks, Jerome Kaino, Sam Whitelock, Brad Thorn, Brodie Retallick, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw, Aaron Smith, Ma’a Nonu, Conard Smith, Julian Savea, Kevin Mealamu, and Ben Smith are all players worthy of consideration for inclusion in the World Rugby Hall of Fame.
Before the introduction of the World Cup, it was hard to rival the sustained success of the All Blacks from 1962 to 1969. They only lost two out of 35 Test matches and were unblemished from the Fourth Test against the Springboks in 1965 until 1969, winning 17 in a row. When midweek games counted for something the All Blacks had 59 wins, two defeats and a draw in this period.
From the 1963-64 tour John Graham, Brian Lochore, Wilson Whineray, and Colin Meads were later knighted for their immense service to rugby and the community. Nobody would have complained if Ken Gray, Ian Kirkpatrick, and Waka Nathan received the same accolade, too and they were all forwards.
The 1905-06 Originals and 1924-25 Invincibles (32-0) are other All Blacks teams that have left an indelible mark.
There have, of course, been lean periods, but for more than a century, the All Blacks have been an intrinsic part of New Zealand’s identity, with their valour, superior skill, and innovation being the envy of the world and subject of many studies.
But in today’s world, the Black Ferns Sevens are growing a legacy of excellence that could be increasingly tough to match.
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2024-05-09T18:22:54Z dg43tfdfdgfd