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New Zealand turn heads with ‘dominant’ display in Olympic quarter-finals
By Finn Morton
Rio Olympics gold medallist Alicia Lucas has praised New Zealand for their “dominant” 55-5 win over China in the quarter-finals of the women’s rugby sevens tournament at the Paris Olympic Games.
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New Zealand are edging closer towards redemption after falling frustratingly short of SVNS Series glory in Madrid almost two months ago. Australia scored two tries in about 90 seconds to snatch the win in that semi-final under the Spanish sun.
The Kiwis had won the League title but weren’t crowned Series champions, but they’ve still come into the Paris Games as one of the favourites to take out gold along with fierce rivals Australia who are also through to the final four.
New Zealand were perfect in pool play by maintaining an unbeaten run of three wins before coming up against giant slayers China in the knockout rounds. China had beaten Fiji by a surprisingly dominant margin of 40-12 on Sunday.
It was a nervy start with Sarah Hirini scoring the opener before being shown a yellow card soon after. China fought back to really make a game of it midway through the first half but it was all the Kiwis from there as they ran away with an emphatic win.
“They had China in the quarter-final. It looked a bit testy, iffy early-on – yellow card to returning captain from an ACL injury, Sarah Hirini,” former Australia sevens star Alicia Lucas said on Stan Sports’ Olympics Daily.
“I thought there for a minute, China 7-5 down, it could be good to be but for the last 12 minutes (New Zealand) were just absolutely clinical, they put a masterclass of sevens on.
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“They hit the full speed as well and they were dominant finishing that game in a really classy fashion.”
New Zealand will look to secure an Olympic medal at these Games when they take on Iloner Maher’s USA at Stade de France. Whoever wins that semi-final will walk away with a silver medal at least, should they be beaten in the gold medal match.
Maher has overtaken two-time Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks captain Siya Kolisi as the followed player on Instagram. The American has been taking fans behind the scenes in the Olympic Village with candidly funny videos.
But Maher’s isn’t just an internet personality or social media influencer. The USA Eagles Sevens captain has been a force to be reckoned with at these Olympics, which included some frighteningly dominant individual tries in pool play.
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The Americans are through to their first women’s sevens semi-final after beating Ellie Kildunne’s Great Britain 17-7. They’ll want to create more history at the Games by knocking off New Zealand in a blockbuster semi-final.
“A really tightly contested match between GB and Team USA,” Lucas explained.
“Hasn’t Iloner Maher just embraced the Olympics! Oh my God. She is stardom here in Paris. She is performing off the pitch just as well as she’s performing on the pitch. Her big carries, her fends to the face – the amount of people she’s put on their backside, the tally count is racking up like her Instagram followers.
“The hard work of Kristi Kirshe around the park, she was absolutely everywhere getting USA across the line in that quarter-final.”
In the other quarter-finals, Maddison Levi scored another first-half hat-trick to help Australia beat Ireland 40-7. That was the Aussies’ second win over the Irish on day two after playing them in the pool stages.
French players were in tears after the tournament hosts were pipped 19-14 by Canada in the other knockout clash. There was genuine belief that France would challenge for a medal but it wasn’t to be.
