NEW ZEALAND’S WOMEN defended their Olympic Sevens title with a gritty, come-from-behind 19-12 victory over Canada on Tuesday, while the United States bagged a surprise bronze.
The Kiwis outscored the Canadians by three tries to two in a tense, defence-led match in front of a near-capacity 69,000 crowd at the Stade de France.
Canada reached the final after a shock defeat of Australia in today’s semi-finals. Their silver medal win represents a major achievement for the Canadian team and their Irish head coach Jack Hanratty, a former development officer for Leinster Rugby.
The US, having made their first-ever semi-finals, had earlier upset pre-tournament favourites Australia 14-12 to claim third place.
The final saw Kiwi skipper Risi Pouri-Lane step Chloe Daniels and run in from 50 metres for the opening try, also hitting the conversion.
New Zealand pinned Canada back in their own 22m, but when the ball was worked left to Charity Williams, the winger was one-on-one with Portia Woodman-Wickliffe.
However, the New Zealander, a star of both the sevens and 15s game for more than a decade, saw yellow for the high, covering tackle.
Canada took advantage, Daniels played into space by Olivia Apps for a straight run-in to the line and successfully adding the extras.
Sarah Hirini tried one ambitious offload too many as the Kiwis regathered, Alysha Corrigan intercepting and showing a clean pair of soles for Canada’s second try to leave it 12-7 at half-time.
New Zealand started the second period exactly as they needed to, the impressive Michaela Blyde stepping inside Corrigan for a fine try, converted by Tyla King to hand them back the lead.
Stacey Wakaa then got the decisive score following a fine Hirini break and some slick inter-passing between those two and King.
A dramatic bronze medal match saw Maddison Levi score two more tries to finish on a record 14 for the tournament.
The previous best in an Olympics was Woodman-Wickliffe’s tally of 10 for New Zealand at the 2016 Rio Games.
But it was not enough as the US responded with tries from Alev Kelter, when Levi’s sister Teagan was in the sin bin, and Alex Sedrick to make it 12 points apiece.
Sedrick herself kicked the vital conversion to seal a famous US bronze in perfect timing for the run-in to the next Olympic Games, on home soil in Los Angeles in 2028.
The women’s tournament followed a similar three-day competition for the men, which could not have been better scripted as global superstar Antoine Dupont led France to victory over defending champions Fiji.
“We always said this is our chance of coming of age for rugby sevens in the Olympics, and it has been, it’s been incredible,” World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin told reporters Tuesday.
“553,000 spectators in six days. It’s been amazing. It’s everything we hoped it could be. And hopefully, it’s a great platform for the future.”
