Jorja Miller claims back-to-back SVNS Player of the Year to join elite three-woman club

New Zealand vice-captain Jorja Miller claimed back-to-back Women’s SVNS Player of the Year honours at the 2026 HSBC SVNS Awards in Bordeaux, becoming only the third player in the award’s history to win it more than once. The 22-year-old joins Michaela Brake and Charlotte Caslick in that exclusive group, and matches Brake as the only player to have won the award in consecutive seasons.

Miller’s second recognition caps a dominant campaign in which New Zealand won seven of nine events on the SVNS Series circuit. She had previously taken the award after helping the Black Ferns Sevens claim the World Championship event in Los Angeles 13 months ago, and her form this season left little doubt she would retain it.

“An absolute honor to be named it once but to get it for a second time, stoked,” Miller said in Bordeaux. “Honestly, all the credit goes to the girls around me and I know it sounds cliche but without these girls I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be able to succeed on the world stage. This for me is a team award and I’m just proud of the team.”

The other nominees were Australia’s Maddison Levi, who won the award in 2024 and was seeking her own back-to-back, and the USA’s Ariana Ramsey, who made history as the first American woman to receive a Sevens Player of the Year nomination.

Miller is one of two Black Ferns Sevens players named in the Women’s SVNS Dream Team of the Year. Risi Pouri-Lane earned her place in the side after a career-best season that included a Player of the Final award at the Hong Kong Sevens. Australia’s Isabella Nasser, France’s Alycia Christiaens, Fiji’s Reapi Ulunisau, Levi, and Ramsey also featured in the team of the season.

Elsewhere in the awards, France’s 19-year-old Anaick Konyi was named the 2026 Women’s SVNS Rookie of the Year, presented by World Rugby Chair Brett Robinson. Konyi helped France secure a fifth-place finish at the World Championship on home soil in Bordeaux, with Les Bleues defeating Fiji on Sunday at Stade Atlantique.