Sevens glory again for New Zealand's men, women
New Zealand’s men and women once again walked away with the silverware on Sunday as they repeated their double Hong Kong Sevens victory from a year ago. The players celebrated with a traditional Haka, a Maori war dance, on the Hong Kong Stadium pitch as fans clad in the famous black shirts prepared to celebrate through the night after the last edition of the Sevens at the legendary venue. In the men's final, a tightly contested first half went by without a score as the atmosphere built in the stadium. It took until the third minute of the second period for the holders to make their breakthrough, with the ball worked wide to Scott Curry, who held off a French tackle to score in the corner. Andrew Knewstubb missed the conversion. A minute later, Cody Vai doubled the advantage, making the most of some French mishandling to dive home. Tepaea Cook Savage failed to convert, leaving French hopes intact. But France, gearing up for a home Olympics this year, left it too late. Varian Pasquet broke away to go over with two seconds left on the clock. Rayan Rebbadj’s conversion left the final score 10-7. Captain Dylan Collier said it was an "awesome effort from the boys," adding: "It's such an awesome tournament. The crowd's just amazing... we're just really happy we were able to win the last one in this stadium." New Zealand’s women were imperious in a comfortable 36-7 final victory over an impressive US side. The Black Ferns had only managed second in their pool on Saturday, but never looked back with a quarter-final win over Canada and a semi-final thumping of rivals Australia. Jorja Miller put them ahead before a hat-trick of tries from Michaela Blyde and two from Mahina Paul sealed the 36-7 victory.  Alex Sedrick’s converted try for the US in the first half was all they could muster. The US women had beaten Fiji and France on the way to the final. "To come back with back-to-back wins in Hong Kong is really special," Blyde said. "We're really proud of the way we performed today. We're glad to finish this Hong Kong Stadium with a win, so hopefully we can bring some more wins next year in the new stadium." Ireland took third in the men’s contest, beating Australia 14-5. The Australian women went one better, beating France 24-21. Fiji claimed fifth in the men’s tournament, beating South Africa 33-14 and were matched by the Fijian women, who beat Canada 19-15 in the play-off.