Gutsy Team Canada earns silver in women’s rugby sevens
Team Canada has claimed an Olympic silver medal in women’s rugby sevens, the nation’s best-ever result in the event.
In Tuesday’s gold-medal final, Canada came up just short against New Zealand by a 19-12 score.
New Zealand were expected to get this far, having won gold at Tokyo 2020 and silver at Rio 2016. Canada reached the final after an upset over France on Day 3, and an even more shocking upset over Australia earlier on Day 4.
The players were beaming with pride while singing O Canada prior to the final at the Stade de France. But New Zealand broke through early, with Risi Pouri-Lane scoring a try and then converting within the first two minutes.
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New Zealand swarmed Canada until Charity Williams busted through for a run, drawing a foul-play penalty and yellow card to Portia Woodman-Wickliffe. That gave Canada a one-player advantage for two minutes, and they made the most of it.
Chloe Daniels, who scored the decisive try in the quarterfinals, found a way through for Canada’s first try. She then converted to level the score at 7-7.
Immediately afterwards, on the final play of the half, Alysha Corrigan made a brilliant interception and ran in for another try. The conversion wasn’t made, but Canada still led 12-7 into halftime.
New Zealand had a quick second-half response, with Michaela Blyde scoring a try and Tyla King converting to put the favourites up 14-12.
But as they’ve done throughout the tournament, the Canadians kept battling. New Zealand were under heavy pressure back toward their own goal line, but would break the defensive line with about a minute left. Stacey Waaka scored an unconverted try to make the score 19-12.
Canada and New Zealand had played one another on Day 2 in Pool A action, with New Zealand winning 33-7. But Canada won every other match en route to the final, against Fiji, China, France (quarterfinals) and Australia (semifinal).
The Canadians’ previous best result was a bronze at Rio 2016. The team finished ninth in the event at Tokyo 2020.