Portia Woodman-Wickliffe celebrated before New Zealand 7s' ‘crazy’ weekend

The Black Ferns Sevens are bracing themselves for a “crazy” weekend after playing just a single game on Friday night ahead of two games on Saturday, and potentially as many as three to round out the weekend on the final day in Los Angeles.

New Zealand, who won their first SVNS Series event of the season last Sunday in Vancouver, have waited all day to take the field at Dignity Health Sports Park and didn’t let up once given the chance to make their mark against world-class opposition.

After taking a moment to pause and celebrate Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, who is playing in her 50^th international tournament for New Zealand, the Kiwis were red-hot against South Africa.

Teenage whiz Jorja Miller opened the scoring in just the first minute, and Michaela Blyde added another shortly after. It was all one-way traffic as they ran up a 41-5 win at the home of well-known American football side LA Galaxy.

“With our impact girls, or just our bench, just realising how to channel their energy in the right direction,” Woodman-Wickliffe told RugbyPass after coming off the field.

“But, man, they’re so eager, they’re so excited to get out on the field. It’s expected, we’ve waited all day for this damn game, it’s like a 15s game.

“So, to have those kind of nerves and expectations is quite hard but I think we did well.”

There’s a “weird” new challenge facing the 12 best women’s and men’s sevens sides this weekend. All teams will play just a single game under the lights on Friday.

New Zealand will then face Brazil and Fiji on Saturday, and if they want to win it all in the City of Angels, they’ll need to play three games on Sunday.

You can still watch @nz_sevens at #HSBCSVNSLAX this weekend!

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— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) March 2, 2024

“Oh my gosh, it’s so weird. With 15s you expect it, right? You’ve got to play 80 minutes,” Woodman-Wickliffe added.

“But with sevens, you’re waiting all day for a 14-minute game and now you go home and sleep. It’s crazy, but it’s nice, nice for the body.”

Woodman-Wickliffe, who has scored the most tries out of any woman or man in Rugby World Cup 15s history, was celebrated with a special haka in the changerooms mere moments after speaking with this website.

The New Zealander joins the likes of Charlotte Caslick and Sharni Williams on the legendary list of women who have reached the incredible 50 tournaments marker in rugby sevens.

“It’s massive but I kind of just wanted to get that first game done,” Woodman-Wickliffe said. “Now I’m like, ‘Okay, it’s just a normal tournament, I don’t want it to be talked about.

“I think to put a performance out like that was pretty cool.

“Seeing it last week with Charlotte (Caslick), did Sharni (Smale) do it as well with her 50^th tournament? That’s really awesome, I love that.

“I wanted to go in the front but with everyone else behind me, but it was cool.”