International rugby sevens returned to thrill the huge crowds at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai as Fiji men and Australia women ran out winners to take an early lead in the HSBC SVNS standings.
Fiji beat Spain 19-5 to lift the men’s trophy and claim their first SVNS tournament victory since Toulouse in 2022, and their first in Dubai since 2016. Argentina claimed the men’s bronze medals with a convincing 14-0 win over New Zealand.
Australia secured an incredible fifth successive women’s tournament victory in Dubai but they had to work hard for it in an epic final against Olympic champions New Zealand which finished 28-24. France overcame Great Britain 15-12 to take home the women’s bronze medals.
Olympic silver medalists Fiji looked back to their scintillating best and turned on the style to thrash Argentina 43-21 in the semi-final, having earlier overcome reigning Olympic champions France 19-17 in a tense quarter-final.
Fiji coach Osea Kolinisau was delighted his side had broken their long run without a title: “It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “I’m so happy for the boys. I’m so happy that we’ve got the monkey off our back now.
Spain was impressive throughout the weekend and made history by reaching their first ever cup final thanks to a superb 19-14 victory over New Zealand in the semi-final, following a quarter-final win against Great Britain by the same score line earlier in the day.
Australia reached the women’s final courtesy of convincing wins over Great Britain 35-7 in the semi-final and 39-0 against Olympic silver medalists Canada in the quarter-final.
Australia’s new captain Isabella Nasser said: “I’m sort of lost for words,” she said. “I’m proud of the girls. We have such a tight-knit group – the young ones really showed up today and I’m sure they will for the rest of the season. The best is yet to come.
Following a ground-breaking Olympic Games in Paris that saw more than 530,000 fans witness rugby sevens, the eagerly anticipated new season of HSBC SVNS began in great fashion with two days of non-stop dynamic action on the pitch and spectacular entertainment off it.
All 24 teams move directly on to Cape Town for the second round of HSBC SVNS 2025 on 7-8 December. A new competition format will see the 12 teams in four pools of three teams with the pool winners advancing directly to semi-finals and a chance to reach the medal podium in Cape Town.
The pools for Cape Town were allocated based on rankings at the end of the Dubai tournament.
Men’s pool A: Fiji, Great Britain, Uruguay. Pool B Spain, Australia and Kenya. Pool C: Argentina, South Africa and Ireland. Pool D: New Zealand, France and USA.
Women’s pool A: Australia, Canada and Brazil. Pool B: New Zealand, Japan and China. Pool C: France, Ireland and Spain. Pool D: Great Britain, USA and Fiji.
HSBC SVNS 2025 features seven events across seven months in seven iconic global destinations. Six regular season rounds will be played in Dubai, Cape Town, Perth, Vancouver, Hong Kong and Singapore to decide the HSBC SVNS League Winners, before the HSBC SVNS World Championship in Los Angeles, which will see the top eight men’s and women’s teams compete at Dignity Health Sports Park which will host the LA 2028 Olympic rugby sevens.