New Zealand will got into Monday’s clash as favourites, but they laboured past quarter-final opponents the United States 5-0 – star player Portia Woodman scored their try – and Britain’s organisation and steady improvement throughout their four games so far suggests a titanic battle.
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Tonegato scored the first and the last tries of the match, and Jessica Javelet scored two in between to give the Americans a 12-5 lead going into the last minute.
“We have a saying “Believe you belong” and we really believed out there”. “We were gritty and tenacious”.
The Canadians entered as the likely bronze medalists, but now face Australia in the semifinals – which doesn’t entirely bother them.
“But it’s not what we’re thinking about in the moment”, she said. “Worry about the process and our game, and I think the rest will take care of itself”.
“We haven’t got the loss against our name but it was definitely the kick up the trousers that we needed going into the quarter-final”, said Australia coach Tim Walsh.
Canadian coach John Tait knows that a repeat win will need a better showing than he got on Sunday. “They finished third in the World Series this year, and we know we will have to be right on our mettle, but we will recover and prepare properly”.
Not only did the rugby team pile on the offence, they didn’t concede a single point over their two opening games. “We’ve created the opportunity, and now it’s up to us to take it”. The United States rallied to beat Fiji 12-7 in the fifth-place playoff.
The semifinalists do not come as a surprise. They are the class of the women’s game. This is the Olympics: “every game’s a final and France is our next one which will be tough”.
Kayla Moleschi tied it up for Canada some three minutes later with a solo breakaway run from behind a scrum.
The lopsided scores in some of the matches may have detracted from the experience for a boisterous crowd which at best half-filled the 15,000-seater Deodoro Stadium but World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper was happy. It worked as Farella powered her way over before Landry added the insurance try. “We stuck to our principles and basics and came out with the win”.
“But we’ve got to execute and we’ve got to put the foot down on the throttle and keep moving forward”, said Kish, a tattooed ball of muscle and energy under a blond shock of hair.
First things first. The Canadians have a battle to top Pool C, which also contains Britain, host Brazil and Japan.
“We’ve been trying to treat it as just another tournament”.
“They’re a good team, they turned mistakes into tries”.
New Zealand, meanwhile, wasted little time announcing their medal credentials as they powered past Kenya despite having their captain Sarah Goss and Ruby Tui both sin-binned during the first half.
Tait pointed to a case of nerves against France in the wake of the poor showing against Britain. “The girls were a bit anxious about that”, he said.
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Canada holds a 9-2 record all-time on the World Series against France, outscoring them 212-63.
