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Aussie women beat NZ in Dubai Sevens final
By AAP
Australia's all-conquering rugby sevens women have crowned themselves "queens of the desert" after winning the Dubai Sevens for the third year in succession.
The world champions began their new season on Saturday in the same grand manner they ended the last - with another trophy-winning display against old rivals New Zealand.
Co-captain Charlotte Caslick, in her first competition since being voted world sevens player of the year, orchestrated their triumph on the first stop in their defence of their season-long World Series title.
The Australians, who lifted the World Cup, World Series and Commonwealth Games crowns last year, carried on where they left off by winning all six matches in their two days in Dubai, while running in a total of 32 tries.
Just as in September when they beat New Zealand 24-22 in the World Cup final in Cape Town, they got the better of their trans-Tasman rivals in the final, this time prevailing 26-19 with tries from veteran Sharni W illiams, Faith Nathan, the prolific Maddison Levi and co-captain Demi Hayes.
Not even a hat-trick from the Kiwi flyer Michaela Blyde could stop Tim Walsh's team from making the perfect start to their new campaign, with Madison Ashby's two key turnovers helping her take the player of the final award.
"Like our coaches say, 'we're the queens of the desert!',' smiled the outstanding Ashby, whose team seemed to thrive in the blistering conditions while others faded.
"We thrive off heat, so for us, it was just a golden win."
Earlier, the Australians had beaten Fiji 38-21 in the quarter-finals with six tries - two each for Levi and Nathan, and one each for Caslick and Williams.
They then overwhelmed France 38-5 in the semis with Levi, Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea, Nathan (2), Caslick and Lily Dick all crossing the whitewash.
The Aussies' major trio of Caslick, Nathan and Levi, who'd all been nominated for the world player award, were unstoppable on the day, with brilliant AFLW convert Levi ending up with 11 tries in all over the two days.
It was, however, a rare off-day for the Australian men, who got knocked out 24-19 by the Perry Baker-inspired US team in their quarter-final, despite three scores of their own - a brace from Maurice Longbottom and one try for Dietrich Roache.
They then went on to lose 28-15 to Argentina to end up in seventh place overall - a big disappointment after they'd opened their defence of their World Series title with victory at the marquee Hong Kong Sevens last month.
South Africa's 'Blitzboks', who'd beaten Australia in their group match on Friday, won the men's title with a 21-5 victory in the final over Ireland, featuring two first-half tries for player of the match Shilton van Wyk and another from Siviwe Soyizwapi.
John Manenti's Australian team, though, are still joint-top of the Series standings alongside the South Africans on 32 points.
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Latest Comments
Unfortunately you don't know anything about French rugby, coaches and players but still making a lot of assumptions and judgements to push your prefabricated and simplistic point of view that Dupont is manipulating everything and is a bad guy. I am not a NZ rugby specialist and wouldn't dare make such theories about what is going on within the ABs team. Therefore my advice to you is to do like Dupont and stay humble when you don't know all the background of the issues !!!
Firstly if you knew a bit of Galthié, he is not the type of coach who is going to ask advice to his players and even his captain about team selection. He is as stubborn as you...
Second Ramos has played a lot of times as 10 with Toulouse and therefore Dupont (in particular when Ntamack is injured and unfortunately it has often happened recently and for long periods). He even played 10 during the last 3 games of the 2024 6N and this was far better performance than the first two games with Jalibert as 10.
Thirdly Jalibert lacked of respect to a La Rochelle player so your theory is once again out.
Fourth as I explained to you Galthié went for a 6-2 bench and Jalibert can only play 10 which doesn't fit that plan. Furthermore as 15 Buros is better under high balls than Ramos and everybody is prepared for a tactical kicking game.
So you can blame Galthié for a lot of things (as you clearly enjoy doing at the end of your post and you should be very happy as an AB fan) but certainly not Dupont. Sorry once more for your conspiracy theory.
And don't worry about potential disharmony in the French team; they are excellent mates around their captain. Jalibert is well known in the French rugby circles to have not a strong character (and we saw that in the WC quarter finals as he is very nervous in any decisive international game unlike Ntamack and Ramos as for his late penalty kick vs England this year).
In conclusion enjoy the game tmrw night. It is good that the ABs are very upset; we should watch a great game of rugby. I hope for running rugby and not too much kicking. With 5 key players injured on our side (Ntamack, Baille, Atonio, Cros and Penaud) and 2 on your side I and various French fans see you as favourites. I obviously hope for another result.
If you are interested you can read a good article in the Guardian on the subject of France-NZ games.
Go to commentsConsistency agree and SA were not unbeaten in 2023 RWC NZ were in 2015 - McCaw and Carter Nonu and Smith SA did not have those Marque players in those postions in 2019 or 2023 - So I wouldnt rank them ahead of tje ABs of 20I5 that clocked up 60 points against France in the QF - furthermore I do not believe for one moment SA won 2023 fairly no way - they were so favoured it became obvious that behind the scenes SA the nation bought the title - Their last 3 matches were won by a solitary point - Sport has been hijacked by a satanic cult just as is Politics
Some players coaches officials and sponsors are involved they know who they are - its called freemasonry - any sport that allows betting is corrupt - its not all about money either for these parasites its also about control - lots of American NFL players have spoken openly about games being scripted - Football is also rigged Referees have been caught on film showing freemason hand signs - The 95 world cup final ranks as the highest and most obvious attempt at cheating There was no way SA were going to allow NZ to gate crash Nelson Mandelas reunification party - NZ were so good they had to posion almost the entire team to get a 3 point win - a Hollywood Movie ( theres your Red Flag ) was made about SAs triumph called Invictus
William Henley wrote a poem called Invictus
It starts
Out of the night that covers me BLACK ( All Blacks ) as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever GODS maybe for my unconquerable Soul ...( Olan says INVICTUS is an evil Malevolent entity who corrupted the Titans ... this is Mandelas double meaning speech ( hes a fraud ) - of thanks for helping overcome SA's adversary NZ - There is only ONE true God Yahuah - Only a false god would be complicit in Cheating Corruption and Harming others to win a RWC for a sick and sinful Nation ) the poem ends with
I am the CAPTAIN of my soul
SA will forever bear the stain of guilt and disgrace over their involvement in poisoning the ABs a day before the 95 RWC Final
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