In a complete role reversal of this time last year in Dubai, New Zealand’s women were the ones celebrating at 7he Sevens Stadium after scoring 19 unanswered points in the second half to deny defending champions Australia.Twelve months ago, Australia had come storming back from 27-7 down early in the second half, scoring four converted tries to complete a remarkable 35-27 win and claim their first title on the World Series.

This time it was New Zealand’s inspirational captain Goss, who played on day two with a broken finger, who dotted down in the corner with time up on the clock to steal victory from Australian hands and leave Sharni Williams and her teammates in tears.

With Olympic qualification on the line at the end of the season, the skill levels and game intensity stepped up another notch in Dubai, and fans at 7he Sevens Stadium were treated to some great sevens rugby on day two of the women’s event.

Earlier in the day, the quarter-finals saw Australia easily beat Fiji 47-0, before Canada surprised neighbours the USA with a resounding 36-0 victory.

But perhaps the shock of the day came in the next quarter-final when France beat their European rivals England 7-5 in a nail-biter on pitch two, with a missed conversion the difference between the teams. France, one of four new core teams in 2014-15, defended superbly in the second half and withstood a series of English attacks to grind out the famous win.

The last quarter-final almost threw up another shock as New Zealand overcame Russia 19-17. The Russians narrowly missed a last-minute conversion to tie the match and force the game into extra-time, allowing the world and series champions to heave a sigh of relief.

In the semi-finals, Canada get off to a bad start by conceding an early try and they had no answer to the lively Australians, going down 29-7. France then gave New Zealand a scare, leading 10-7 at the break before the Kiwis raced away in the second for a 31-10 win.

England won the Plate final after a hard-fought 19-12 win over Fiji, albeit only thanks to Natasha Hunt’s try with seconds remaining in the first period of extra-time when both sides were out on their feet. Rio 2016 hosts Brazil had earlier beaten South Africa to win the Bowl.

Canada and France also went to extra-time in the third place play-off, with Ghislaine Landry crossing the whitewash to secure a 10-5 victory.

Speaking after lifting the trophy Goss said: “It’s unbelievable really. We pride ourselves on finishing at the end so we’re really happy. They came out firing as we knew they would, but fortunately we finished the job off. It’s brilliant.”

New Zealand coach Sean Horan was delighted with resilience of his troops and reflected on how the quality of rugby has improved on the women’s series.

“It’s all about Olympic qualification and I’ve been blown away with the standards of all the teams. The programmes are progressing and the excitement of the game is growing hugely,” said Horan.

See the complete 2014 Dubai 7s Schedule & Results.