Sevens rugby: Black Ferns Sevens ready for return as Olympics preparation begins

New Zealand's Niall Williams cuts through the Canada defense during the 2019 Cape Town Sevens. KLC fotos for World Rugby

It's been a long 15-month wait but the Black Ferns Sevens are finally getting ready to play again.

They haven't played a game in over a year, their last tournament being the Sydney Sevens in February 2020. They were awarded the Sevens Series title after the Hong Kong, Langford and Paris events were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now they begin preparation for the Tokyo Olympics with actual gametime after spending the time off training in Mt Manganui.

The Black Ferns Sevens will meet Australia six times across three days starting tomorrow with their male counterparts also facing off.

Friday's and Sunday's four matches take place at Grammar Tec in Auckland with Saturday's encounters playing before and after the Blues-Waratahs Super Rugby Transtasman match at Eden Park.

"It's been a long time and I guess there's only so many times you can play each other and it be fun," Niall Williams joked.

Olympic gold is the one thing that has eluded the Black Ferns Sevens who have been on a golden run since taking silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Since being beaten by Australia in the inaugural sevens gold medal match they have won three Sevens Series titles, a Sevens World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold.

"They've had the right to carry that title for the last four years but our goal is to carry it for the next four years and so on. Even though this is technically a warm-up to the Olympics, we're going out there to win and only get better to make sure we can perform at the Olympics."

Rising star Manaia Nuku has yet to play an international for the Black Ferns Sevens while Jazmin Hotham made her debut at the last tournament 15 months ago.

Michaela Blyde told the Country Gold Breakfast it will be good to test the younger players in the squad who weren't part of the Olympics five years ago.

"It's going to be exciting for them to expose them to a team that is obviously one of the best in the world as well. To see how they will go against them is exciting. This is obviously a great opportunity to see if they can handle the pressure of almost an Olympic trial."

"Those young girls are going to have to test themselves mentally and physically as well who can handle the task at hand."

TRANSTASMAN SEVENS DRAW:

Friday 21 May, Grammar TEC
10am Black Ferns Sevens v Australia
10.30am All Blacks Sevens v Australia
3.30pm Black Ferns Sevens v Australia
4pm All Blacks Sevens v Australia

Saturday 22 May, Eden Park
3pm Black Ferns Sevens v Australia
3.23pm All Blacks Sevens v Australia
4.35pm Blues v Waratahs (Super Rugby Trans-Tasman)
6.40pm Black Ferns Sevens v Australia
7.03pm All Blacks Sevens v Australia

Sunday 23 May, Grammar TEC
11am Black Ferns Sevens v Australia
11.30am All Blacks Sevens v Australia
BREAK
3pm Black Ferns Sevens v Australia
3.30pm All Blacks Sevens v Australia