Australian Women Win Oceania Sevens
July 28, 2008 - 9:32am
Story by: ARU
The Paper to Paper Australian Women’s Sevens team has been crowned Oceania Sevens champions and secured their place at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai next March after defeating New Zealand, 22-15, in the final in Apia on Sunday.
After a clean sweep of Pool rivals on Day One the Aussies only needed to defeat Samoa in the semi-finals to earn one of two qualification spots on offer in the Oceania region and did so with a convincing 29-0 victory over the hosts, with Ruan Sims bagging a double.
In the final Australia again faced up to New Zealand, who they had defeated 15-5 in the Pool matches on Saturday.
The Australians, coached by men’s Sevens captain Shawn Mackay, had to come from behind initially after Selica Winiata raced clear from halfway to score for New Zealand, but Debby Hodgkinson’s try levelled the score at 5-5.
Hodgkinson set up Australia’s second try with a fine break before offloading to Ruan Sims, but speedster Victoria Grant sprinted away to make it all square – 10-10 – at the break in a thrilling end to end encounter.
Sims and Grant claimed their second tries of the match to again level the scores at 15-all, before the Aussies claimed a historic victory with Australian touch representative Nicole Beck’s try on full-time.
Australia will now be represented by both a men’s and a women’s team in the World Cup Sevens in Dubai next March.
Day 2 Results
Semi-Final
Australia 29 defeated Samoa 0
Final
Australia 22 defeated New Zealand 15
