NZ Women bid for hat-trick of World Cups

New Zealand’s women’s side will bid for a hat-trick of World Cup titles when they face Australia in the Rugby World Cup Sevens final on Sunday.

The Kiwis powered to a 38-7 win over France in their semifinal to set up a final against Australia, who themselves downed USA 17-7 in their semifinal earlier in the day.

Michaela Blyde, one of the All Black Women's star players, said the team was rewarded for their hard work, but that the final wouldn’t be easy.

“We came off the Commonwealth Games with a bronze medal a month ago and I guess being a Black Sevens team and having the high standards that we have, we have got a different fire in our belly to go out there and, hopefully, go back-to-back-to-back. But it is not going to be easy, though,” Blyde said.

“We stuck to the game plan for the whole 14 minutes and to come up with a win is really good. We are just going to continue with that momentum, we’ve got a big final against Australia so no matter who we come up against, it is going to be massive. So we have just got to focus on recovering well for the next seven hours and get ourselves up for the final."

Blyde, who scored a hat-trick in the 2018 final against France and repeated that in the semifinal, said she enjoyed the good ball her teammates had given her.

“My strength is to be able to use my speed on the outside so any space on the outside that I get, I like to utilise that and full credit to the girls who do a lot of work in the middle to create the space in the first place. For me, it is just making sure I am in the right position so that they can make a good pass. France have been a real quality side for a long time, and they are very, very physical and love a good battle in the contact area so, for us, we just made sure we held them off in that area and used the ball and made the ball do the work."

USA’s Naya Tapper was disappointed her side couldn’t beat Australia.

“We went out there and tried to implement some of the things that we have been working on over the summer and some of the learnings we have learnt from the past few games. We didn’t do that as much as we wanted to do so we have some things to take away from that match and into the next one.”

She said the team would focus on the bronze medal match now.

“I would be ecstatic because I have never medalled at a Rugby World Cup, and this is my third so far. We have got to the semifinals in all of those so this time I would like to leave with a bronze medal at least.”

“France have a very strong and aggressive side. We are going to have to go out there and make sure we have the depth that we need to be able to play on the edges and through the middle, and as long as we can do that, we’re going to be a-okay.”