ONE DAY OF rugby Sevens to go in Paris.
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Ahead of Tuesday’s final day of action in the women’s competition, which will feature the gold-medal match as well as Ireland’s final efforts towards a fifth-placed finish, here’s the story so far from the Stade de France.
How have Ireland been doing?
IRELAND MADE A blistering start to their pool opener but it ultimately swung away from them in costly fashion. Defeat to Great Britain left them on the backfoot thereafter — it ultimately resulted in their meeting the seemingly unstoppable Australia at the quarter-final stage.
Fittingly, it was Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe who registered her country’s first ever Olympic try, the Tipp woman powering through two tackles on the right edge to give Ireland an early lead over Team GB.
The British side, though, responded instantly as Meg Jones popped a picturesque offload to Isla Norman-Bell who sprinted home and converted her own try for a 7-5 lead.
Murphy Crowe reestablished Ireland’s advantage just before the break, her try converted by captain Lucy Mulhall Rock for a half-time score of 12-7 in Ireland’s favour. But missed tackles proved costly on the turnaround as Jasmine Joyce and skipper Emma Uren gave GB a two-score cushion which proved unassailable for Ireland with three minutes to go.
Knowing they would face Australia in their final pool game on Monday, Ireland entered their middle game against South Africa virtually requiring victory.
Allan Temple-Jones’ side responded in kind to that ostensible ultimatum, blowing away the Blazeboks on a score of 38-0 with tries by Béibhinn Parsons (2), Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Stacey Flood, Vicki Elmes Kinlan and Eve Higgins.
The victory came at a cost, however, as Ireland lost captain Lucy Mulhall Rock to a tournament-ending injury.
Still, in their final pool game against Tim Walsh’s gold-medal chasing Australia, it was Mulhall Rock’s replacement Eve Higgins who scored all 14 of Ireland’s points in the narrow defeat which proved enough to progress to a quarter-final as one of the two best third-placed finishers in the pools.
Their opponents in the last eight? Australia again — and this time, the women from Down Under weren’t messing.
Walsh’s side finished second in the overall World SVNS Series table this year, winning the Grand Final leg in Madrid. Only Ireland had managed to make them look mortal at these Games, and that ultimately proved illusory in the knockouts.
Inspired by a first-half hat-trick from Maddison Levi — more on her later — Australia romped to a 40-7 victory to book a semi-final with Canada. More on them later, too!
With a medal now out of their reach, Ireland will on Tuesday face hosts France in a preliminary play-off, the winners of which will finish their tournament with a 5th/6th-placed play-off. The losers of that tie will play off for seventh.
Quarter-final Results
- New Zealand 55-5 China
- Great Britain 7-17 USA
- France 14-19 Canada
- Australia 40-7 Ireland
The Big Story
Canada stunned France at the quarter-final stage to book a last-four clash with the Aussies, ending the hosts’ medal chances with a last-minute try at a heaving Stade de France.
While Canada won Olympic bronze in Rio eight years ago, this was a massive upset as France — Tokyo silver medallists and third favourites behind New Zealand and Australia this time around — were beaten on their own patch by a side who entered the competition with only an outside medal chance, roughly akin to Ireland’s.
Chloe Daniels, 21, scored what transpired to be the winning try with 53 seconds remaining in the second half, but Canada were naturally still forced to produce an almighty defensive stand to prevent France from wiping out their 19-14 lead at the death.
Piper Logan, meanwhile, scored Canada’s two other tries and spoke afterwards of the extent to which she relished playing on front of such a large, hostile audience in Saint-Denis.
“This crowd is incredible to play I front of, whether they were with us or against us,” Logan said. “It was really incredible to play tonight. feel very happy and privileged to be here.
“To win a medal would mean everything. We’ve been waiting for this one for quite a while.”
Canada will effectively have two shots at that medal: an even more extraordinary upset of Australia would put them in the final, from which point they would be guaranteed at least silver. But defeat will see them drop into a bronze-medal match, most likely against neighbouring USA who face New Zealand in their own semi.
France, meanwhile, must dust themselves down to face Ireland for what they will consider to be a measly shot at fifth place.
“It is really hard to find the words at the moment,” said French two-time Olympian Seraphine Okemba. “It is heartbreaking. We did not do our job, our mission, so I am really disappointed.”
Ireland’s Best Try
Eve Higgins goes over for Ireland's first try v Australia#RTESport #Paris2024
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 29, 2024
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A strong carry by Megan Burns teed up this phase from which Erin King drew two defenders and popped a lovely offload back inside to Eve Higgins for their opening try against Australia in the pool.
Higgins, starting in place of captain Lucy Mulhall Rock, was in inspirational form in her own right as she scored and converted both of Ireland’s tries in a 19-14 defeat.
Best Player
To apply serious creative licence to a recent Katy Perry lyric, it’s Maddison Levi’s world and Ireland are unlucky to be living in it.
A former AFL Women’s star, ‘Maddi’ Levi has become a transcendent rugby Sevens figure Down Under and her dominance of the world stage has continued apace in Paris.
Levi is the fastest Australian woman to score 100 tries on the Sevens circuit, achieving it in just 15 events, and she may well be the fastest Australian woman ever to pick up a rugby ball.
At these Olympic Games, the 22-year-old Queenslander has scored an astonishing 11 tries in four games. Four of those tries — a five-minute hat-trick in the quarter-final and another in the pool fixture — came against Ireland.
It’s conspicuous the extent to which her teammates look for Levi when in possession. Almost 45% of her carries result in tries — not for Australia, for Levi herself.
But aside from being the most lethal finisher in the world game, it is Levi’s work rate which rounds her off as the most effective female Sevens player on the planet.
Take, for example, an incident with three minutes remaining in Australia’s quarter-final win over Ireland: the Aussies were already 31-0 up and when Eve Higgins broke the line and made inroads into the Australian 22′ in search of a consolation score, it was hat-trick hero Levi who chased her down from another post code to make the try-saving tackle.
Levi has been the player of the tournament and she looks set to become the player of her generation.
Remaining Women’s Sevens Fixtures
All to be played on Tuesday, 30 July:
- Placing 5-8: China v Great Britain, 1:30pm
- Placing 5-8: France v Ireland, 2pm
- Semi-final: New Zealand v USA, 2:30pm
- Semi-final: Canada v Australia, 3pm
- Placing 11-12: South Africa v Fiji, 3:30pm
- Placing 9-10: Japan v Brazil, 4pm
- Placing 7-8: TBC, 5pm
- Placing 5-6: TBC, 5:30pm
- Bronze-medal match: TBC, 6pm
- Gold-medal match: TBC, 6:45pm
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