women
weeks
The Gtech Community Stadium in Brentford, west London, hosted the biggest concentration of international sevens talent in the world on Thursday 24th September as the final of the inaugural Ultimate Sevens tournament concluded.
The women’s final featured two automatic qualifiers and previous winners, Atlantic Novas against heavy favorites Pacific Stream (two great oceans colliding, East vs. West, North vs. South, etc.) for the coveted Ultimate Sevens trophy.
Despite the incredible tenacity of Atlantic Novas, who managed to limit prolific World Sevens Player of the Year Maddie Levi to just one try, keeping the second on the line, it was Brazil’s Gabriela Lima who saw Pacific Current lift the trophy with a final score of 12-6.
After the match and the first trophy lift in a crowd of players crowding the field, Atlantic Novas and GB Sevens player Isla Norman-Bell gave her reaction to the final and her time in this brand new tournament.
“Honestly, I’ve had an amazing time. I love the weeks so much and we’ve brought such an experienced group but also some new people from all over the world coming together,” said Norman-Bell RugbyPass.
“We jumped so quickly as a team and it showed on the field today.
“We were able to do things that a lot of teams couldn’t do. I loved it so much. It was such a cool concept.”
Six Ultimate Sevens teams, Atlantic Novas, Pacific Current, Sol Feroz, Athletic Albion, Clan Taran and Foudre Bleue franchised players to the team, meaning players who had previously competed in international teams on the SVNS circuit were now teammates.
This set up one of the most striking aspects of this tournament, which was the variety of matches between rivals, teammates and nationalities.
Followers of the international circuit would be used to seeing similar Australia and New Zealand dominated the HSBC SVNS circuit, but how would those same players fare when they had to compete against each other.
The Atlantic Novas side was home to no less than nine nations; Australia (Faith Nathan), Great Britain (Isla Norman-Bell, Ellie Boatman), USA (Alev Kelter, Nia Tolliver), Japan (Yuna Saigo, Chiharu Nakamura), Spain (Silvia Morales), Fiji (Senenieli Donu), Poland (Natalia Pamieta), Denmark (Philippa Jampica Huré).
With such an incredible variety of backgrounds and styles, players have had to adapt in both training and playing. Isla Norman-Bell explained
“To be honest, I think a lot of us like to play the same way. We came in and we wanted to play fast, that was our idea and what we wanted.
“The first practice we came in and we all had different calls for things. We all knew what we wanted to do, but everything was different. So some people might say ‘change,’ some people might call it ‘cut.’ So the next day we got together the next day and said these are the words we’re going to use going forward.”
“I think that was the biggest thing, and then we got lucky. Everyone on our team speaks English. Obviously, it’s not a native language for some, but I think that was a big help for us.”
Ultimate Sevens also brought elite sevens back to the UK for the first time since 2023, after the London 7s was dropped from the international circuit (ending a twenty-three year run of competition). Running out in front of the ‘home’ cloud was even more special for Norman-Bell, who plays her 15-year-old club rugby in Trailfinders Women in PWR, a stone’s throw from the Gtech Community Stadium in Ealing.
The competition was a great advertisement for the sport, and especially for what it could provide for female players around the world. Reflecting on this and her advice for any young players looking to watch future iterations of the tournament, she said
“I missed it so much, like playing in front of friends and family is something you can’t beat. I have a lot of friends here so it was super special and we’ve always wanted to play at home and to be able to do it again is so special for all of us.
“I would just say go for it and work really hard. Hard work will get you places. But honestly enjoy it, we had so much fun and I think that’s what the week brings and what we hoped the crowd would really enjoy, but just do your best and give the week a go!”
