2023 World Sevens Series

[Stargazer]

Blyde sent to the bin for cynical play. A team yellow.

Brazil scores.

19 - 7 NZ

[Stargazer]

Pouri-Lane scores her second. She's playing well.

26 - 7 NZ

[Stargazer]

Great team try. Hat-trick to Pouri-Lane.

FT: BF7s 31 - 7 Brazil

Good start against a pretty weak opponent.

Shiray Kaka confirming in the post-match interview that it's already quite hot out there.

[Stargazer]

The other match in NZ's pool ended in a win to Fijiana, who beat Great Britain 19 - 10.

[Stargazer]

Very soft yellow for Ng Shiu. Looked like he knocked the ball on in the tackle; nothing deliberate.

[Stargazer]

AB7s way too casual. Spanish scrum close to NZ's try line.

[Stargazer]

Great chip kick from Spain and they almost score. Good defence from Che Clarke. It's still 0 all, but penalty to Spain.

[Stargazer]

AB7s penalised 6 times in this half.

[Stargazer]

Damn, now Spain score and they go into the break with the lead.

HT: AB7s 0 - 7 Spain

[Stargazer]

Another weak start from the AB7s. Hopefully, they'll have a better second half. Getting possession would be good, because they've hardly had the ball.

[Stargazer]

Yesssss, that's more like it. Try to Regan Ware.

5 - 7 Spain

[Stargazer]

Cooks-Savage coming on.

[Stargazer]

Geez, another try to Spain. Yuck.

[Stargazer]

Spain leads 14 - 5. One minute to go.

[Stargazer]

Awesome individual try to Moses Leo. They skip the conversion to get a re-start. The hooter has gone.

14 - 10 Spain.

[Stargazer]

It's over. Well done to Spain. The second time ever that they've beaten the AB7s (first time in Vancouver in 2019).

FT: AB7s 10 - 14 Spain.

Awful start from NZ. Ill-discipline the biggest issue, but also too many mistakes. For example, that no-look pass from Ng Shiu - after all the good work he'd done - was a coach killer.

[Higgins]

@Stargazer Maybe they simply aren't as good as the salary they receive decrees them to be?

[Stargazer]

@Higgins They gave a lot of game time to newbies in this game. I'd say it was a mix of inexperience and maybe complacency, not taking Spain seriously enough.

[Stargazer]

Another upset: Great Britain men beat Australia men's 21 - 19.

[Steven Harris]

@Stargazer just seen your post , are we this poor at the minute ..? or has everyone including the minnow countries got so much better
Just seems NZ Rugby need to throw more resources at this squad or start looking at other options in terms of personal