After getting knocked down in a disappointing semifinal, Canada picked itself up to thump Britain and win the first ever bronze medal in Olympic women’s rugby sevens Monday.
Advertisement
Eduardo Mufarej, president of the Brazilian rugby union, told AFP the host team’s performances had done the country proud, with a re-match against Japan on the cards Monday, the victor of which will be awarded a core team place on the World Series Sevens circuit. Rugby and golf, which had not been in the Olympics since the early 1900s, returned this year after a long absence.
But a New Zealand squad containing Sonny Bill Williams – a two-time World Cup victor in the 15-a-side game and the highest-profile star competing in rugby’s return to the Olympics after 92 years – won as many titles (3) as Fiji on the 10-stop world sevens circuit.
“We want to be here in Brazil in 10 years’ time, and say this is a great game and the 2016 Olympics was the catalyst to establish the game in this country”.
Monday’s final will crown rugby’s first Olympic champions in almost a century after the sport was last played at the 1924 Games in Paris.
Woodman is the all-time leading try-scorer in women’s world series history, with 119 over four seasons.
“He’s usually very sympathetic, but he said, ‘Carol, when things are at their worst, you have to be at your best, ‘ ” Fabrizio said, sharing the story to make a point about Potter’s strength.
“We weren’t good enough in that game”, she told BBC Sport. Will Dean of Kelowna, B.C., Rob Gibson of Kingston, Ont., Pascal Lussier of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., and Julien Bahain – who was born in France but competes for Canada – were fifth in the repechage and failed to qualify for the final.
In the other semifinal, New Zealand overpowered Team GB by a 25-7 margin.
The Americans are the defending gold medalists, having won in 1924, but the format for the Olympics and the rugby world order has changed significantly since then.
Of her big hits, Woodman said, “I was just vibing off all the girls”.
“We were devastated. The gold medal dream was over”, she said.
New Zealand advanced by knocking the USA out of medal contention during the quarterfinals on Sunday.
They had four and half hours between games – to think about what they did wrong and what to do better – before coming back out, to face France, a far tougher team than Fiji, which they would have faced had they won their earlier match.
“I’m glad people got to see the chance to see that because that’s what we can do on a regular basis”.
“It was a massive win for us”, Asami said.
“You just look at all the people here and this part of the world probably doesn’t see a lot of rugby”, the retired two-time Rugby World Cup victor told CNN before watching his country lose the final 24-17.
Advertisement
“I sent a message out to Chloe before she kicked saying, ‘This is for the gold medal, so keep your head down and slot this, ‘ and she did”, Walsh said.
