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Jorja Miller and Maddison Levi to miss rest of SVNS Perth through suspension

Jorja Miller of New Zealand runs the ball to a try during the 2024 Perth SVNS women's match between Ireland and New Zealand at HBF Park on January 26, 2024 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)

New Zealand’s Jorja Miller and Australia’s Maddison Levi will miss the rest of SVNS Perth after being sent off for separate incidents during a thrilling quarter-final on Saturday afternoon.

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Miller, 19, signed the longest women’s contract in New Zealand rugby history last year and the teenager repaid the faith with a strong start to the 2023/24 season.

Unfortunately for the New Zealander, she will take no further part in the competition on Australia’s west coast after being handed a three-match ban for a high shot against Australia.

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Black Fern Jazmin Felix-Hotham talks to RugbyPass and delivers one of the all-time interviews | Perth SVNS

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Black Fern Jazmin Felix-Hotham talks to RugbyPass and delivers one of the all-time interviews | Perth SVNS

Referee Craig Chan had no choice but to send Miller off during the first half of the quarter-final at HBF Park. The Kiwis went down to six players against the SVNS Series leaders.

Australia raced into a 12-nil lead after ties to Faith Nathan and Madison Ashby, but then disaster struck. Try-scoring machine Maddison Levi was sent off for the second time in as many games.

Levi, who was sent off in the SVNS Cape Town final last month, joins her sister Teagan on the sidelines. Teagan was sent off for a high tackle late on the opening day in Perth.

Both Miller and Levi have been found to have breached Law 9.13 (dangerous tackle) and have been handed bans that will see them miss the final day in Australia.

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Miller was handed a three-game ban after the judiciary considered mitigating factors including her clean record, the acceptance of the card and her young age.

But Levi has been handed a heavier four-match ban. The judiciary considered her acknowledgment of foul play but Levi’s recent red card for a similar incident was a factor.

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Levi’s suspension is a concern for hometown favourites Australia. It’s their fourth red card in three tournaments. On top of being sent off twice herself, sister Tegan and teammate Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea have also seen red this season.

“We’ve been working on getting our tackle height down but I guess for Teags, she was going in with some really good intent and I’d never discourage her from the intent that she has,” Australia captain Charlotte Caslick told reporters on Friday night.

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“With the way that they’re policing the tackle laws now we have to make sure that last moment, we’re dipping into contact.

“It might be a record I think. Three tournaments and three red cards.

“We say that courage is our currency and it’s the backbone of this team and working hard,” she said.

“The next part of that is probably just being a bit smarter and we can’t just be good athletes, we’ve got to be good footballers too.

“I think next steps forward is just learning from our mistakes. (Coach Tim Walsh) likes to say we’re either winning or we’re learning so we’ll definitely take a few things out of that.”

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Hellhound 43 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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