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‘Anything can happen’: New Zealand set for SVNS ‘war’ with South Africa
By Finn Morton reporting from Hong Kong
HSBC SVNS Series veteran Regan Ware has described New Zealand’s rugby rivalry with South Africa as “a war every time” ahead of this weekend’s crunch clash at the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.
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Rugby fans are in for a treat on day two at the all-new 50,000 arena, Kat Tak Stadium, with the All Blacks Sevens set to take on the Blitzboks in a pool stage fixture which could have major ramifications on both teams’ hopes of taking out the title.
South Africa started their quest for glory with a scintillating 40-7 demolition of Uruguay, which included a double from Quewin Nortje and a five-pointer each for another four players. But their second match didn’t quite go to plan as the Boks were beaten 26-7 by Australia.
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But that doesn’t change a thing for the All Blacks Sevens.
New Zealand won both of their matches on day one, but as Ware explained after the massive 29-nil demolition of Uruguay, this rivalry is something special. As they always do, the New Zealanders are bracing for a battle against their traditional foe.
“Exactly bro, it’s a war every time we play them,” Ware told RugbyPass.
“No matter how they perform on day one, you turn up on day two and it’s a game of sevens at the end of the day, anything can happen.
“We take our learnings from this game, learn what we can from [South Africa’s] day one performances and just put our best foot forward for our performance.”
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New Zealand are the two-time defending champions at the Hong Kong Sevens, with Australia the last men’s side to take out the title in 2022. It was actually a ‘blackout’ at the last couple of events, with the Black Ferns Sevens also lifting the trophy.
The All Blacks Sevens haven’t quite been the same force this season, however, with the Kiwis going down to Spain on two occasions at the season opener in Dubai. Spain have since emerged as one of the leading contenders for the men’s title, it must be said.
But after missing the Men’s Cup quarter-finals in Perth and another tough weekend in Vancouver last time out, the All Blacks Sevens are chasing much-improved performances in Hong Kong China on the back of those two wins on Friday.
“In terms of the tournament, it’s massive, especially the calibre of the competition nowadays” Ware reflected. “Secondly, just for ourselves, I think it’s been a while since we’ve won two games on day one.
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“I think the pleasing thing is we’ve gone away, we’ve talked about things we needed to work on and we’re putting most of them out on the pitch so that’s probably the most pleasing thing from my perspective that I see.
“There were lots of messages that came out of a couple of bad performances… the most important one was just how important our work off the ball is. 80 per cent of the sevens game is played without the ball so the better we are at that part of the game, the better we’re going to be with the ball.
“You could see the boys are working… but two from two, bro, we’re stoked with that.”
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