Australia and Fiji were crowned women’s and men’s world champions respectively after claiming exhilarating victories at Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 in Cape Town, South Africa.

The all-conquering Australian women added Rugby World Cup Sevens glory to their recent Commonwealth Games and World Series victories to secure a hattrick of major titles and cap an unstoppable 2022.

The women’s final came to a nail-biting conclusion as a hat-trick of tries from Maddison Levi and one from tournament top scorer Faith Nathan were just enough to see the women in green and gold to victory as the unfortunate Tenika Willison failed with a conversion attempt that would have put the match into extra time following New Zealand tries by Kelly Brazier, Shiray Kaka, Stacey Fluhler and Alena Saili. Australia won 24-22.

Double Olympic champions Fiji got off to a flying start in the men’s final with four first-half tries from Joseva Talacolo, Kaminieli Rasaku, Elia Canakaivata and Filipe Sauturaga. New Zealand got on the scoreboard through tries from Moses Leo and Akuila Rokolisoa amid a flurry of yellow cards in a hotly contested match.

The Fijians defended ferociously, pushing New Zealand all the way back under their own posts, and sealed a superb victory with the final play through a fifth try from Pilipo Bukayaro.

Fiji lifted the Rugby World Cup Sevens trophy for the third time with a 29-12 win, having previously won in both editions hosted in Hong Kong in 1997 and 2005, and now join New Zealand on three wins.

For Australia’s women it was their second world title, having won the inaugural women’s tournament in 2009 in Dubai, and they draw equal with rivals New Zealand on two cup wins.

The innovative ‘winner takes all’ knock-out competition format meant that to take home top honours a team had to win every time they entered the pitch and both Fiji’s men and Australia’s women made no mistake to maintain a perfect record over three intense days of competition.

Before the finals took place there were ecstatic scenes of celebration as Ireland’s men made history by winning the first medal at any Rugby World Cup as they claimed bronze with a 19-14 victory over Australia thanks to tries from Sean Cribbin, Harry Mcnulty And Terry Kennedy.

France followed up their silver medal in San Francisco four years ago by securing bronze in Cape Town with a comprehensive five-try win against the USA. A pair of tries from Lili Dezou, and scores by Joanna Grisez, Ian Jason and Alycia Chrystiaens.

Photo VOCfm