New Zealand narrowly avoided a major upset against the United States on Sunday to join Australia, Canada and Britain in the playoffs for the first rugby sevens medals awarded at the Olympics.
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But they rebounded to comfortably beat Spain 24-0 in their quarter-final to set up a semi-final against Canada, while New Zealand will play Britain in their last-four clash on Monday after edging the ever-improving USA team 5-0 in a nervy display.
Britain maintained their flawless record with a 26-7 last-eight triumph over Fiji, Abbie Brown crossing twice, and will face New Zealand on Monday for a place in the gold medal match. “We don’t get to play at home very often so we say that we protect the line like it’s our home and it gets the girls up and we’re very happy not to have let them in there at the end”.
It was the pace of Woodman, the leading try-scorer in the world series last season, which made the difference on the last play of the first half, after the Americans had knocked-on in their own territory. “We want to finish No. 5”.
“We will keep working on ourselves”.
Williams Lake’s Kayla Moleschi and Canada’s Women’s Rugby Sevens team will play for a bronze medal at the Olympics Monday afternoon.
“It (a possible medal) is what we’ve dreamed of during the past two years, and that is what we have come here to do”.
Earlier on Sunday, Great Britain’s Abigail Brown scored less than 15 seconds into the match against Fiji.
Emma Tonegato’s late score rescued a 12-12 draw in that match and Australia – the winners of Pool A – went on to beat Spain 24-0 to reach the last four.
The impressive Charlotte Caslick then racked up a brace either side of half-time, with speedster Ellia Green putting the icing on the cake when she crossed the whitewash on the hooter. The Olympics experience is unbelievable – it is very different to what we are used to and something we will never forget.
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With just under four minutes left to play in the second half Australia again picked up a try to take a 17-0 lead, before Canada began to mount some offensive pressure. Australia and Canada will compete in the other semi-final.
