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Cape Town SVNS day one recap

South Africa's Ronald Brown (R) celebrates with teammates after scoring a try during the men's HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 pool C match between South Africa and United States at the Cape Town stadium in Cape Town on December 9, 2023. (Photo by Rodger Bosch / AFP) (Photo by RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia women look on course to win back-to-back titles after impressing on day one of the HSBC SVNS Cape Town.

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The Dubai SVNS champions dominated on day one, only conceding one try and scoring a combined 120 points at the Cape Town Stadium. They are one of three unbeaten sides in the women’s draw, alongside New Zealand and France.

Those three progress to the quarter-finals tomorrow as pool winners, with Fiji, the USA and Ireland all coming second. The final two quarter-final berths go to Great Britain and Canada, who were the best third-place finishers.

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Stormers coach John Dobson previews his team’s Round One Champions Cup encounter with Leicester Tigers

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    Stormers coach John Dobson previews his team’s Round One Champions Cup encounter with Leicester Tigers

    Ireland continued to show what a force they are on the men’s tour, finishing the day as the only unbeaten side. That included statement victory against hosts and last week’s Dubai champions South Africa in the final match of the day. Ireland exhibited some resilient defence in their 14-12 win and topped Pool A with their win.

    Ireland progress with pool winners with Fiji and Australia, this is despite the latter heavily losing 35-5 to New Zealand earlier in the day, which included a first-half hat-trick to Leroy Carter.

    Losses to Canada and Samoa meant New Zealand could only manage a third-place finish in their pool, but that was still enough to make it to the quarter-finals due to a superior points difference to Great Britain.

    South Africa, Argentina and Canada all finished runners-up in their pools and will progress to the quarter-finals tomorrow, with France, who started the day with a last gasp penalty win against Fiji, taking the other spot for third-place finishers.

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    Australia women look destined for another title, while the men’s tournament is far tougher to call tomorrow.

    Women’s quarter-final fixtures
    Great Britain vs USA
    Australia vs Ireland
    France vs Fiji
    New Zealand vs Canada

    Men’s quarter-final fixtures
    Argentina vs Canada
    Ireland vs New Zealand
    Australia vs South Africa
    Fiji vs France

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    Comments on RugbyPass

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    PickOllieMathisYeowRazorYouCoward 37 minutes ago
    Have the All Blacks stumbled across the perfect midfield partnership?

    Sux Big Jim did himself a mischief, I’m dying to see him get a crack at 12. He looked ok in his limited minutes.

    But Jordie will need to be injured before surf Jesus will consider it.



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    Jacque 42 minutes ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    Parker = AVG at best

    Holland = NPC Level



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    Chris929 1 hour ago
    Top five Premiership Women’s Rugby transfers for 2025/26

    Your basing things on no facts-we simply dont yet know what impact having so many non english players will have . Its only been in the last 4-5 years that the number of non english has grown so greatly at many clubs.

    The vast majority of the current red roses squad have been in it for years(many since they were 18,19,20).



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    B
    BK 1 hour ago
    Have the All Blacks stumbled across the perfect midfield partnership?

    The WBs are a bad sample in rating a power player. Let’s see what he does against the Boks in the cauldron of their stadiums and then we can start to say he should be there till ‘27.

    19 Go to comments
    O
    Over the sideline 1 hour ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    100%… particully the last sentence

    123 Go to comments
    B
    BK 1 hour ago
    The losers of the All Blacks' Rugby Championship campaign

    Other than a few key players i.e Savea, Jordie, Jordan, it is telling on what a constant turnstile of players the jersey has become which can only signify that we do not have stalwarts that deserve the jersey the way other players have in the past. It used to be that at least 10 out of 15 players were arguably the best at their positions. Other than Jordan, who can you say the same of … Savea is an incredible all round loose forward but without an ability to master his core roles above all like a Steph Du Toit can we even say that he’s the best in the world. It’s hard to stomach.

    6 Go to comments
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    JW 1 hour ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    I don’t personally. I think a lot of people are confusing Razors need to do something to take this team to the next level, now that South Africa have gone their, to the mediocre pile of crap Fosters was. Razor nearly just won the best/toughest RC in history.

    I think Joe would be great replacing Wayne Smith. I think you get all his upsides without so much of his rigidness that he introduced to their structure.



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    PMcD 1 hour ago
    App comment - https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/if-the-boks-beauty-doesnt-get-you-its-bomb-squad-beast-certainly-will/

    Will Stuart is actually an introvert, which isn’t what you expect of a 140GK International tighthead. Will started life playing 10 (which is why he still has good hands) and converted to prop. He was always good around the park but his scrummaging wasn’t as good as it needed to be at Wasps.

    Once Du Toit came, the Bath scrum improved but you actually saw all of the props get better, which they said was down to Du Toit in training. He does his sessions but is very open about helping the others and helps that he tells you what to do but then packs down either side of the scrum to show you, which is why he has made them all better (that’s a tough school of propping).



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    GodOfFriedChicken 1 hour ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    Are you saying that he didn’t show up? Because he most definitely did for Moana on both sides of the ball, running the ball well, sometimes superhumanly so, and getting timely turnovers. He’s done the same in the black jersey too. It was pretty damn convenient that he was the one with not only the final turnover against the Boks at Eden Park but also being part of the counter ruck that ended it, while featuring heavily in the attack. The team’s an inconsistent mess in so many areas and he’s one of the only players who’s been consistent in almost every game barring the Wellington catastrophe. They definitely need to start grooming a successor given his age but effort is definitely not his problem.

    123 Go to comments
    J
    JW 1 hour ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    Those were comments for Fosters book. JS spoke again on the matter last week and said as much.

    123 Go to comments
    J
    JW 1 hour ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    He didn’t ignore them, they were unavailable.

    123 Go to comments
    G
    GodOfFriedChicken 1 hour ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    De Groot is great but he’s far from our most consistent player. And like you said, he won’t always get to start which is going back to one of the big issues with Scooter - he’s consistently getting outplayed by other All Black locks.

    123 Go to comments
    J
    JW 1 hour ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    Yep their contracting model is destroying the game. They are possibly offering too much to retain players.

    Kemara was ahead of O’Connor but I think only playing himself because Reihana was injured.



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    GodOfFriedChicken 1 hour ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    Yep, with Codie Taylor and George Bell around it’d be great if he went to the Highlanders and got some more game time.

    123 Go to comments
    P
    PMcD 1 hour ago
    App comment - https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/if-the-boks-beauty-doesnt-get-you-its-bomb-squad-beast-certainly-will/

    NB - are you using that logic stuff again? 🤣🤣🤣

    Yes, you may be correct, actually playing the best 13 in his correct position of . . . . (Ahem!!) 13, does have some natural logic to it. . . . . . Which is why he is playing at 11 for the AB’s.🤣🤣🤣



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    194 Go to comments
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    JW 1 hour ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    Rating Plummer as a test player lol soz

    Think weve seen enough of McAlister to know we are always going to be wanting a couple of hookers who standout more than him alright.



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    123 Go to comments
    J
    JWH 2 hours ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    Highlanders under Jamie Joseph look good with young talent like Pledger, Stanley Soloman, and that young Otago flanker.

    123 Go to comments
    J
    JW 2 hours ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    All good, I only realised what you might have been thinking was the topic while replying.

    123 Go to comments
    P
    Poorfour 2 hours ago
    Top five Premiership Women’s Rugby transfers for 2025/26

    It’s a valid concern but I think it’s a generational thing. A surprisingly high proportion of the current squad broke into International rugby at 19 or 20 - I suspect because they were the first generation to come through a proper pathway so were better equipped to overtake players who’d come up as amateurs.

    Those players are now well established in the squad and many of them are young enough to have another RWC cycle in them.



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    10 Go to comments
    J
    JW 2 hours ago
    Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

    Yeah I didn’t even want him at 15 in Fosters reign because the team was struggling so much for ball and he’d always just kick it away.

    Schmidt found a way to turn that into a strength by making the team a low ruck count strike team, but Razor had the chance to turn it around after Beauden came back from Japan running again but stuffed him/it by making him a 10 again.



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