HSBC SVNS: Theatre, sport, athletic prowess, national pride on show in 2025

The day after an HSBC SVNS event can feel like the day after attending a concert featuring your favourite band. There's that mix of elation at having witnessed something special and sadness that it's over. Brain, stomach and heart try to process what you've witnessed. You ponder when your heroes will next be in town, whether the magic can ever be replicated or even bettered, how to savour the memories. The 2025 tournament was a stormer.

In no order, and expressing just some of the many images and thoughts that spring to mind from the seven special weekends of action, here are some players and moments that will have stirred the emotions of many fans...

The love the Canada players show for their inspirational skipper Olivia Apps. They have her back and she has theirs. She's the ultimate team-mate.

Locked-in, ultra-focused, ice-in-the-veins, record-breaking Michaela Brake unable to stop herself bubbling at the New Zealand national anthem being played before the finals in Singapore and Los Angeles.

Those wonderful, passionate, colourful Kenya fans dancing with the players after they won their play-off final.

The sheer spread of try scorers in Fiji women's squad. Snuff out the threat posed by Verenaisi Ditavutu? OK, but here comes Vika Nakacia...or Lavena Cavuru...or Sesenieli Donu...or...you get the picture.

The relentless positivity of Spain's Pol Pla. Had Pla been plugged into his country's national grid, he could have single-handedly solved the recent loss of power.

The jaw-dropping athleticism of Australian star Maddison Levi. What can't this woman do? Attack, defend, leap, tackle, sprint, jackal, of course. Yet it's not about her; it's all about the team. A special talent.

HSBC SVNS World Players of the Year 2025 Jorja Miller and Luciano Gonzalez: where to begin describing their contributions to their respective New Zealand and Argentina teams and to the HSBC SVNS in general? Ten seconds to go and in desperate need of a try - get the ball to this duo to get you out of trouble. They create gaps where there are none. Game-changers, the pair of them.

Lili Dezou's appetite to tackle hard and often for her French team-mates. Never showy, just there, dependable, one of those first-name-on-the-teamsheet kind of players beloved by her team-mates. If you're going to beat France, you'll have to beat Dezou first.

The whole crazy unpredictability of the men's series where a team such as France can go from being runner-up in Vancouver to bottom of the pile next time out in Singapore, or how South Africa can go from ninth-place finishes in Hong Kong and Vancouver to winning the World Championship in Los Angeles. Australia? Up and down like a fiddler's elbow. They ranked 7th, 9th, 2nd, 7th, 3rd, 10th, then 6th in Los Angeles. Head-scratching madness or the essence of top sporting entertainment?

Fijian offloads. It's all about angles, telescopic arms, that ability to look for a team-mate when under fire rather than panicking or going to ground. It's a trait of Fiji's national teams, in the same way that team spirit and efficiency might typify the wonderful Japan's women's team.

You'll all have your own favourite moments from Los Angeles and from the six HSBC SVNS events that preceded it. Now we must wait until the 2026 tournament, which has a revamped format.

Next season's World Championship will feature not one but three events, with 12 women's and 12 men's team competing for the big prize. That special dozen will comprise the eight teams that featured in the World Championship in Los Angeles, who play in Division 1 across six events next year, plus the top four teams from the new Division 2.

If it's half as good as this year, it will be worth the wait. Thanks to the players, coaches and fans for a thrilling 2025.