It is a tough week, Super Rugby Pacific is going gang busters, the kick off for Super Rugby Women, Six Nations and of course the world is revolving around Vegas. So rugby sevens takes a bit of back seat.

The Vancouver SVNS is done and with everything else going on in the rugby universe no need to get into all the details. At the macro level, the men’s tournament was taken out by Argentina (again) and women’s by our Kiwi cousins. For the women, four tournaments down, Kiwis have two and Aussies two.

The Japanese women for the first time made it to the semi-finals. Personally the Sakura are a favourite team and they sure gave the Aussie women a run for their money in the third place playoff. The Fiji women made it to the final for the first time since Dubai in 2021. They looked to be getting back to the Fiji of old. And it cannot be ignored, as much as we might want to, for the first time ever Brazil defeated the Aussie women.

It would be remiss not to mention Kiwi Michaela Brake who broke Portia Woodman-Wickcliffe’s all-time try scoring record. She is an astonishing finisher.

In the men’s series the top four teams in the standings have made a significant gap on the field led by Argentina, Spain (yes Spain second), Fiji and South Africa. The USA and Ireland have dropped off at 11th and 12th. Even New Zealand at seventh have not been one of the big dogs of the SVNS Series in the last 12 months or so. The men’s tournaments are a bit like T20 cricket – anyone can win a match.

Obviously if you do not win its disappointing, so for the Aussie Sevens teams it was disappointing. After Perth, Vancouver could be seen as going from being the peacock to the feather duster. Maybe a bit harsh.

The women went from winning Perth to third in Vancouver. The men went from silver in Perth to seventh in Vancouver. But you know what I mean.

But there were some quality rays of light coming out of Vancouver.

Women

Let us cut to the chase. Coach Tim Walsh is blooding a lot of new players who at this stage are highly skilled. But they just do not have the big game match experience yet. They did not roll out and start all their big guns until the third pool game.

Charlotte Caslick did not play in the first match against Spain, then actually started on the bench in the third-place playoff game. Their loss to Brazil was arguably the rugby upset of the weekend. To be fair the Brazil defence was very good and the Aussie attack was rather clunky, it was noted Tia Hinds started on the bench.

Brazil’s Yasmim Soares scores a try (Photo by Tomaz Jr/PxImages/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Naturally missed Maddison Levi. Hinds is probably under-appreciated but has become a vital player of the team. She turned the third place play off in the Australians’ favour.

Bella Nasser had an excellent tournament, really led from the front and showed some real physicality. Chalotte Caslick did Caslick things.

The pick of the youngsters? Heidi Dennis has power and pace. Bridget Clark, back from injury, brings size but did not get the opportunity to show what speed she has on the wing.

From a playmaking perspective Ruby Nicholas seems to have that skill set and has pace, and is also a kicker. Will also mention Kahli Henwood at 25 she is not a youngster but is developing into a very good player. Again she brings some size and strength.

By the way with the loss to Brazil in the Pool stage the Aussie women faced New Zealand in the quarter-final. The Kiwis were too physical and the combination on the wing with Jorja Miller feeding it to Stacey Waaka, back from injury, was pretty unstoppable.

Add in the Kiwis probably wanted a bit of revenge after losing in the Perth final. A Kiwi win was not a surprise.

Men

Sounding like a broken record, the men’s World Rugby SVNS Series and every tournament is highly competitive. The Aussie men came second in Perth, then in Vancouver seventh. In the Pool stage they defeated South Africa but, in the quarter-final South Africa defeated them.

They have got some terrific young players who have a big future in sevens and probably 15s as well. They have size, speed and big engines. These are Ben Dalton, Jayden Blake and Aden Ekanayake. So keep an eye on them.

The two biggest issues for the men, they do not seem to have a player or two who can break the game open for them. That special player who can make something out of nothing. Nor do they have any player with out and out speed. As a consequence, they have to work so very hard for every try.

A stat that popped up in their New Zealand Pool game. The Aussie men had 22 carries per line break while New Zealand had 5.3 carries per line break.

Anyway, Vancouver is over. Next stop is Hong Kong, 28-30 March 2025.

But and it is a big but – between now and Hong Kong we should get to see some of the Aussie Sevens women a have a crack at 15s.