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‘Hard to watch’: Black Ferns Sevens coach provides update on injured duo
By Finn Morton
Black Ferns Sevens coach Cory Sweeney has provided an update on injured duo Tyla King and Shiray Kaka, with the pair watching on from the stands on day three at SVNS Singapore.
New Zealand’s clinical 24-5 win over Great Britain in Saturday’s quarter-final at the National Stadium came at a significant cost with the two Olympic gold medallists leaving the field during the second half.
Dual international Tyla King, who is the reigning World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year, was the first to make way after leaving the field on a medical cart. Unfortunately, Kaka appeared to suffer a more significant injury shortly after.
Kaka, who received an individual trophy at last month's Hong Kong Sevens after being recognised as the best and fairest, had to be carried off the field at the Singaporean venue with what looked like a knee injury.
Following New Zealand’s 33-22 win over Fiji in the semi-finals, coach Cory Sweeney opened up about the injuries with the team still waiting “for some scans” as they assess the damage to Kaka’s knee.
“So Tyla has got a rolled ankle with a bit of swelling overnight. She’s obviously not playing today but we will find out exactly how severe that is over the coming days,” Sweeney told RugbyPass on Sunday afternoon.
“Shiray has done her knee so we’re just waiting for some scans to come back on that and see how severe that is as well.”
The Black Ferns Sevens’ ranks are deployed with coach Sweeney only having 11 players to choose from in their semi-final and the Cup decider against Australia.
Captain Risi Pouri-Lane told this website on day two that the absence of King and Kakak definitely presented a “hole” in the talented New Zealand team, but the skipper remained confident in the squad's ability to step up.
Playing against the Fijians, that’s exactly what the Kiwi women did. Stacey Waaka, Jorja Miller and Michaela Blyde (double) all got on the scoresheet along with Pouri-Lane who also took over starting goal-kicking duties from King.
“We’ve got two special people that our ladies witnessed go down yesterday and that’s always hard to watch. There’s always an emotional connection to that straightaway,” Sweeney reflected.
“The girls, they showed up today and showed up for those two that got injured and took their opportunity as well.
“That’s what we really ask of this team and they did a good job.”
Catch up on all the latest SVNS Series action from the 2023/24 season on RugbyPass TV. SVNS Singapore is live and free to watch, all you need to do is sign up HERE.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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