Women's Sevens World Series gearing up for epic climax

The quarter-finals for the final leg of the HSBC Women’s Sevens World Series are confirmed.

Series leaders Australia will play Fiji while New Zealand, who are in hot pursuit in the race for the series title, will face Spain after an action-packed first day of competition at the Stade Jean Bouin in Paris.

In the other quarter-finals, hosts France take on England while Canada against USA completes the line-up.

With Australia leading rivals New Zealand by just four points in the standings, the stage is set for an epic climax to the series. The two dominant teams find themselves on different sides of the quarter-final draw meaning they could meet in the final. A silver medal in Paris would be enough to secure the series title for Australia.

Both nations recorded perfect records on day one with three straight victories to top their groups. Australia began with a 24-10 victory against Fiji, followed by a tense 24-20 defeat of Russia and finished the day with a convincing 31-14 win over Canada. New Zealand started the day with a hard fought 24-12 win over England, before beating Wales 54-7 and completing the day with a solid 17-0 defeat of Ireland.

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In front of an enthusiastic crowd hosts France showed their dominance to record three wins out of three with crowd pleasing victories over USA (14-5), Spain (20-0) and Japan (26-17). France are currently third in the series standings and will be hoping to secure a place on the podium on home turf.

Invitational team Wales created a moment of history by scoring their first ever try on their first series world series appearance against Ireland, despite going down in a 24-5 defeat.

The fifth and final round of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series 2018 sees three days of intense rugby sevens action in a combined event with the men’s series finale.

The men’s tournament begins on Saturday 9 June with Australia taking on Wales in the first game of the day at 09:00 local time. A large crowd is expected as the women’s action returns to the pitch at 15:02 local time.

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