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WATCH: New Zealand women's rugby sevens team performs iconic 'haka' after winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics
The New Zealand women's rugby sevens team performed a traditional victory act, haka, after retaining their title by defeating Canada in the recent match-up at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Named as the Black Ferns Seven, the team has dominated the sport since its inception in 2012, having collected seven series crowns in a career spanning 12 years.
In the semi-finals, the US rugby sevens team went against the New Zealand women's rugby sevens, where the latter team took a comfortable victory scoring 24-12. On the other hand, in a semi-final match-up of Canada against Australia, the former edged out the Australian rugby sevens team scoring 21-12.
In the thrilling finals, the two winning teams from the semi-finals faced off against each other. Stellar performances from Risi Pouri-Lane, Michaela Blyde, and Stacey Waaka helped the New Zealand women's rugby sevens team finish on top. After the win, the women gathered for haka, the war dance of the Maori people in New Zealand.
Conventionally, the New Zealand national rugby union team, the "All Blacks", the "Black Ferns" and a few other teams adopted haka to perform before their international matches. But the New Zealand women's rugby sevens team, dubbed "Black Ferns Sevens", performed the victorious dance with the gold medal around their necks.
In an X video posted by "On Her Turf", the fierce women were seen performing 'haka' in perfect sync with each other, beaming with pride and joy.
The Canadian rugby team settled for silver and the US team collected the bronze, the first ever women's rugby medal at the Olympics. The US team pulled out within the last two minutes to edge out the Australian team, winning by a narrow margin.
The New Zealand women's rugby sevens win also marked the last for Portia Woodman
Portia Woodman, the rugby sevens player of 33, became the first woman to score 200 tries in the Seven Series in 2022. She was part of the New Zealand women's rugby sevens silver-winning team at the 2016 Rio Olympics and gold-winning squad at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Ahead of the Paris Olympics, Woodman confirmed that she would retire after the Games. However, in a recent interview, she shared that her game was not up to the mark but the collective effort and 'simplicity' of the women bore fruit.
"I think I played my worst game out there - a yellow card and another penalty. Man, that was terrible, I thought I learned my lesson from Rio. It was just about being who we are and keeping things simple and just loving the game. I think that's what we showed out there," she said. (via RNZ)
For the New Zealand women's rugby team, the Olympic gold came after the victory at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The team had won silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
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