It was an historic day at the inaugural HSBC Perth SVNS as Arntina’s men won back-to-back events for the first time, while Ireland’s women claimed their first ever series title.
Argentina continued with their excellent form by cruising to a 31-5 victory over Australia in a one-sided men’s final to wrap up consecutive SVNS titles.
This followed their tournament win in Cape Town last December, with captain Santiago Alvarez over the moon with the team’s success in Australia.
Very proud
“I don’t have words to describe how I’m feeling right now,” he said. “I’m very happy, very proud of this team, these young men.
“Australia are a very tough team, we know them well, we’ve played them several times this year but we kept the focus on our process, our system. Can we keep it up? I don’t know. Today, we will celebrate. Tomorrow we will start talking about the next tournament.”
Their triumph in Perth means Argentina also extended their lead in the men’s SVNS title race, having claimed two gold and one silver medal finishes from the three rounds in the 2023/24 series so far.
They are in first position with 58 points and have opened a 14-point gap over Fiji and Australia behind them on 44 points.
Meanwhile, Ireland women’s coach Alan Temple-Jones was left almost speechless after his side beat Australia 19-14 in a thrilling final.
“Playing Australia in Australia is an unbelievable opportunity for the girls,” he said. “We’re extremely chuffed… lost for words. We’ve had a good focus these last two weeks. We had a lot to improve on after Dubai and Cape Town… unreal.”
Ireland captain Lucy Mulhall echoed his sentiments and said the victory had been “a long time coming”.