This was a historic day as the Argentine men became the first to win back-to-back titles in the inaugural HSBC Perth SVNS, and the Irish women won their first series title.
Argentina continued to perform well, defeating Australia 31-5 in the one-sided men’s final and winning the SVNS for the second time.
This follows on from their tournament victory in Cape Town last December, and captain Santiago Alvarez was elated with his team’s success in Australia.
I’m very proud
“I don’t have words to explain how I’m feeling right now,” he said. “I’m so happy and so proud of this team, these young guys.
“Australia are a very tough team, we know them well and have played them several times this year, but we stayed focused on our process, our system. May I? I don’t know. Today we’ll celebrate. Tomorrow we’ll start talking about the next tournament.”
Victory in Perth means Argentina have extended their lead in the men’s SVNS title race, taking two gold medals and one silver from three races in the 2023/24 series.
They sit at the top of the table with 58 points, opening a 14-point gap between Fiji and Australia behind them with 44 points.
Meanwhile, Ireland women’s coach Alan Temple-Jones was left almost speechless after defeating Australia 19-14 in a thrilling final.
“It’s an incredible opportunity for these girls to play in Australia in Australia,” he said. “We are so happy…we are speechless. We have been working with good concentration these past two weeks. After Dubai and Cape Town, there was a lot to improve…unreal .”
Ireland captain Lucy Mulhall echoed similar sentiments, saying the win was “a long time coming”.
“This means a lot and we have been on a long journey. This is a huge thing for Irish women’s rugby. We will definitely celebrate.”
Despite losing on home soil, Australia extended their lead at the top of the women’s SVNS standings to 12 points thanks to their quarter-final victory over arch-rivals New Zealand.
Australia have 58 points after three matches, ahead of New Zealand with 46 points, France with 44 points and Ireland with 38 points.
Earlier, the Irish men won the bronze medal with a 24-7 victory over two-time Olympic champion Fiji, and the British women won the bronze medal with a 24-10 victory over the United States.
Probably not Argentinian #HSBCSVNS Win without destroying anything🤣#HSBCSVNSPER|@lospumas7arg pic.twitter.com/mYk74eFhJt
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) January 28, 2024
World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin congratulated the winning team and praised Perth SVNS Tournament organizers.
“We witnessed a fantastic weekend of world-class rugby sevens played in front of a sold-out crowd, with a vibrant atmosphere and a fantastic line-up of music and entertainment at the HSBC SVNS Festival,” he said. .
“Congratulations to the Irish women on their historic first SVNS title win and to the Argentine men on their continued excellent recent performance.
“We look forward to returning to Perth next year. We would like to thank Western Australia Premier Roger Cook, Tourism Western Australia, Venue West and Rugby for their support and commitment to hosting such a memorable event. We would like to thank Australia and our title partner HSBC.”
“A great year for Sevens”
“This is a big year for rugby sevens, with the launch of the reimagined HSBC SVNS and the 2024 Paris Olympics in July. Sevens is a key driver of the global growth of our sport and sevens There has never been a more exciting time as we continue to innovate and evolve our events to increase the global appeal of rugby and attract new fans.”
The world’s best 12 men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams will next gather in Vancouver from February 23-25 and Los Angeles from March 1-3 for rounds 4 and 5 of HSBC SVNS 2024. will be held, and a race will be held to aim for the league championship. Game 7 in Singapore is heating up.
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