Fans in the proposed venue for the Olympic Games LA 2028 rugby sevens competition enjoyed three days of non-stop action as France men and New Zealand women ultimately claimed the HSBC SVNS Los Angeles titles at Dignity Health Sports Park.

France secured the men’s gold medals with three unanswered tries in a 21-0 victory over Great Britain to end a 19 year wait for a title, with their only previous victory coming on home soil in Paris back in 2005 and having lost all six finals they have contested since then.

Antoine Dupont was the headline act as he joined the squad in Vancouver last week, and since his arrival the French have won bronze and gold to move up to fourth in the SVNS standings.

New Zealand’s women backed-up their victory in Vancouver last weekend as Michaela Blyde’s hat-trick powered the Black Ferns Sevens to a 29-14 victory over rivals Australia to take their second gold medal of HSBC SVNS 2024 in as many weeks.

n the men’s s third place match, Ireland comfortably beat Spain by 24-7 after leading 19-0 at the break. Meanwhile the USA secured the women’s bronze on home turf with victory by 21-7 against Canada, their best finish of HSBC SVNS 2024 so far.

Three of the four men’s semi-finalists had never won a SVNS event previously, demonstrating the increasing competitiveness of international rugby sevens and giving fans around the globe excitement that come July the Olympic rugby sevens medals could be claimed by any team in the line-up.

France just held on to win 26-24 over Ireland in their semi-final after Dupont had showed great pace to race away from three Irish opponents and open the scoring with his third try of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Great Britain won a last-minute penalty to hold on for a 10-7 win against Spain to advance to the final.

Elsewhere, fourth seed New Zealand lost 12-5 to Samoa in the ninth-place playoff to finish tenth, their worst of the season.