Top seeds Australia needed a last gasp conversion to avoid an upset at the hands of the United States in their final pool match as the quarter-final picture became clear at the inaugural women’s sevens tournament on Sunday. Timaima Ravisa sprinted to take the scoreline to 12-0.
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Australia and Canada will meet on Monday in the first semifinal, while New Zealand will face Great Britain in the second semi of the day.
World series champions Australia closed out the day with an impressive 36-0 defeat of a physical Fiji side to top Pool A, while New Zealand showed ominous form in Pool B with a 52-0 thumping of Kenya and a 31-5 victory over Spain.
Brazier added: “We pride ourselves on our defence”. Tylia Nathan-Wong was yellow carded and sent from the field for two minutes.
The 12-player British squad contains 11 members of the England team which finished the world sevens series tied with Canada, which won the last stop on the tour and edged into third place and was confident of winning an Olympic medal.
Canada ran in seven tries, five of which were converted, as Japan got off to the worst possible start when Ghislaine Landry crossed the chalk just 29 seconds into the game. “And we’re not happy with a bronze or a silver”.
The top-ranked Aussies underlined their gold medal favouritism by dominating their two opening day pool matches, scoring 15 unanswered tries in the Rio heat to seal a quarter-final berth on Sunday.
Portia Woodman scored the only try.
Emily Scarratt’s team made it four successive wins by knocking out quarter-final opponents Fiji 26-7 thanks to Abbie Brown’s try double and touchdowns from Alice Richardson and Joanne Watmore.
Brazil won its first game of the tournament, with Beatriz Futuro Muhlbauer capping the victory by diving under the posts for her second try of the match against Japan directly in front of the biggest section of local fans, triggering raucous cheering in the nearly half-full temporary 15,000-seat stadium.
The two-try Tonegato said her team is relishing the atmosphere and conditions at Deodoro Stadium.
“It doesn’t happen very often that I get on the scoresheet so it’s nice”.
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At the other end of the tournament, Brazil followed up on their maiden Olympic victory, 26-10 over Japan, with a 24-0 win over Latin American rivals Colombia.
