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Australia miss out on sevens Olympics medal after two heartbreaking losses
By Finn Morton
Members of the Australian women’s sevens side were in tears when the full-time whistle sounded to bring an end to both of their matches on Tuesday. They didn’t win a medal at the Paris Olympics after losing 21-12 to Canada and going down 14-12 to the USA.
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Australia have long been touted as one of the gold medal favourites ahead of these Games. After claiming the SVNS Series crown on a historic day at Madrid’s Civitas Metropolitano in June, some considered the Aussies to be the team to beat.
It all seemed to be going to plan at Stade de France this week. After beating South Africa and Great Britain in pool play, and then Ireland in both a group stage clash and a one-sided quarter-final, Australia had booked their place in the final four.
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Waiting for the women in gold in the semi-finals were giant-slayers Canada. The Canadians had shocked the Parisian crowd on day two by beating hometown favourites France in a thrilling knockout clash.
Maddison Levi opened the scoring inside the first minute to give Australia a quick lead, and Sariah Paki added to that with an effort a few minutes later. But the Canadians hit back just before the half through Charity Williams which proved decisive.
Playing with momentum and the confidence to match that, Canada scored again to take a slender two-point lead before extending that further with Piper Logan scoring late in the contest. There would be no fightback from the Aussies who lost their chance to challenge for gold.
“It can be a small margin, winning or not. Against some really good opposition, we played some good footy but didn’t execute when we could have or should have,” coach Tim Walsh said in a statement.
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“They’re devastated. They’re put a lot into it, everyone has. We came into this tournament to walk away without regret and every single one has done that.
“They’re going to be disappointed, but I’m proud of them.”
Players were very emotional after that semi-final defeat but they had still had one more chance to claim an Olympics medal. It wouldn’t be easy but they needed to find a way to pick themselves back up for a bronze medal playoff.
Iloner Maher’s USA were their opponents in that clash and it proved to be much more difficult than some people anticipated. While Australia scored first through Maddi Levi, a try to USA’s Alv Kelter levelled the scores just before the half.
Australia had a chance to take the lead after the break with Isabella Nasser and Sariah Paki shaping up for a two-on-one about five metres out from the try line. Nasser triple-bumped dummy passes before finding Paki who dropped the ball cold over the line.
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Teagan Levi made amends for that soon after by sending try-scoring sister Maddison over with about 90 seconds left, but a missed conversion from Tia Hinds proved pivotal.
With time up on the clock, a breakaway try from Alex Sedrick levelled the scores, with the conversion delivering the USA their first-ever women’s rugby sevens medal. Australia had missed out completely.
“It sucks but we gave it everything. We played our hearts out and I think that’s the beauty of sevens and sport, that’s why we play it,” captain Charlotte Caslick explained.
“It’s a game of moments and there’s a couple of things we’d like to take back but we can’t.
“The first game we played Canada back into the game. To their credit they fought to the end and the USA did the same.
“We more than anyone wanted to come home with a medal. To have this feeling, we’re disappointed.”
Wouldn’t it be great if the story was about the US Women fronting up and winning rather than the tragedy of the excellent Aussie team not getting it done. Show some respect to the winner in some context besides their social media/girl power perspective.