Rising star Jorja Miller has brought up a try double to power the Black Ferns Sevens past Ireland 33-12 and into the semifinals at the opening tournament world series tournament of the season at Dubai.

With several key veterans missing from the two-time Olympic champion era, coach Cory Sweeney has had to promote previously fringe performers to support returning captain Sarah Hirini.

One of those promoted to a more prominent role this year, Kelsey Teneti needed only 20 seconds to put the Ferns on top of the Irish, put into space by Risi Pouri-Lane. They won a breakdown penalty in their own half and Miller doubled the scoreline for some breathing space.

Speedster Amy-Leigh Murphy Crowe took advantage of some space, created by a subtle hold on a defender, to strike back for Ireland.

After the halftime hooter, Theresa Setefano won ruck ball and the ball shifted wide for Mahina Paul to score, as the Kiwis led 21-7 at the break.

Miller brought up her brace, when she gathered a misdirected Irish lineout throw in her own half and had too much speed for her pursuers.

Pouri-Lane had converted all four tries to boost her team’s scoring and turned provider again, when she threw a long pass for Katelyn Vahaakolo to score in the corner.

Eve Higgins grabbed a try back for Ireland, running over the tackle of Vahaakolo, but could not conjure up their first win over the Olympic champions.

“Very happy for the girls, very proud of them,” reflected Setefano. “We came out this morning with all our work-ons and learnings, and wanted to continue expressing ourselves.

“We’ve got a reasonably newish team, so to get all the girls some exposure to international rugby was pretty awesome.”

They will now face France for a place in the final, after the Europeans accounted for USA 31-5 in their quarterfinal.

Earlier, Great Britan and Australia both kept Japan and Canada respectively scoreless to book their passage to the final four.

Meanwhile, try doubles to Sofai Maka and Ngarohi McGarvey-Black have propelled the All Black Sevens past five-time defending champions South Africa 24-17 and into the men's semis.

The NZ men only scraped into the playoff rounds as one of the best third-placed teams in poolplay, but produced a performance that belied their previous outings at this event, trailling early and twice coming from behind in the dying moments to snatch victory. Newcomer Maka galloped down the sideline to put his side up 19-17, before powering across to ice the result after the siren.

“We had a tough conversation last night, after going down to Spain and Fiji,” said McGarvey-Black. “Mentally, we’ve been talking about tough men, and to be down two games and beat the reigning champions, you can’t get a better feeling.

“We had to get one over them, because they clipped us at the Olympics. It was good to put a performance up and try to get that consistency back in our game.”

They face the upstart Spaniards against in the semifinals, after they continued their upset run with a 19-14 win over Great Britain.

Black Ferns Sevens 33 (Miller 2, Teneti, Paul & Vahaakolo tries; Pouri-Lane 4 conversions) Ireland 12 (Murphy Crowe & Higgins tries; Flood conversion)

All Blacks Sevens 24 (McGarvey-Black 2 & Maka 2 tries; McGarvey-Black 2 conversions) South Africa 17 (Nortje 2 & Don tries; Leyds conversion)