Akira Ioane crossed for New Zealand’s second but Kameli Soejima scrambled over to draw the scores level, Katsuyuki Sakai’s conversion pulling the Japanese two points clear for a famous win.
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The Australians were motivated by comments by Kiwi coach Sean Horan, who claimed they “don’t like the physical side”.
The reigning World Sevens Series champions took down New Zealand 24-17, in a thrilling gold medal match that saw the two nations’ long-standing rugby rivalry reach the world’s biggest stage.
Farmer, a Richmond, Virginia, native and environmental attorney (she’ll head back to her “real job” after Rio), was hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro four years ago with an Australian friend who spoke reverentially of rugby.
It was the spell around halftime that Woodman, the top try scorer in the tournament with 10, spent in the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on that probably ended New Zealand’s hopes.
“The Australians are a good side, they can read everything we do and capitalise on our mistakes”.
“I think hockey is as hard as any of the team games you play; basketball is similar, where you have to play for two weeks, day after day”, he said.
Although the 15-player version of the sport appeared at the Olympics between 1900 and 1924, sevens was only voted into the Games in 2009 and Monday’s first medal matches, with the men’s final to follow Thursday, marked the end of a seven-year journey. The rollercoaster of sevens goes up and goes down, and so hopefully we can rest up nicely ahead of tomorrow.
Australia absorbed an expected early battering from New Zealand and conceded an early try before responding with four consecutive tries to win the women’s rugby sevens final 24-17 on Monday. “But we look at every player as a good player on the New Zealand team”, he said.
“We played pretty well, especially against France”, said coach Neil Powell.
“We accomplished our target, which was to finish ninth and play the Womens Series next year”, Brazilian rugby union president Eduardo Mufarej told AFP. She sacrificed everything for me.
“It was a typical trans-Tasman battle”, Australia co-captain Shannon Parry said, referring to the intense sporting rivalry between her country and neighboring New Zealand. “New Zealand haven’t yet centralised”.
Walsh spoke to Network 7 after the game about the massive opportunity for women’s sevens to grow after its first Olympic outing, a sentiment his players shared.
Fiji has competed at the Olympics since 1956 but never won a medal, although they’ve never had a chance to compete in the national sport at the Summer Games.
“We’re bitterly disappointed”, she said. “And if you think about the people all around the world that are going to get to watch it, maybe for the first time, I think they’ll quite enjoy it”.
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She’s targeting Olympic gold in Tokyo, saying “I’m not feeling like this again”. Canada has one silver and three bronze medals so far, with three of those coming from the women’s swim team.
