The Paris Olympics women’s rugby tournament wraps up Tuesday with classification matches for 5th-8th place and placement matches for 9th-12th place. (Classification rounds determine seeding for future placement matches, which determine the final standings).
The Americans' win over Great Britain in the quarterfinals guaranteed they will play for a medal in Paris. In the semifinals, the U.S. fell to New Zealand, but Canada stunned Australia. New Zealand will face Canada in the gold medal match, while the U.S. will face Australia for bronze.
Canada vs. Australia
Australia looked unbeatable behind Maddison Levi entering the matchup with Canada, but the Canadians stunned Australia for a 21-12 victory.
Levi looked like she was going to have another field day when she quickly scored the first try of the match (12th of the tournament). Charity Williams made a nice heads-up play at the end of the first half to bring Canada within five at the half.
A massive momentum shift in the match, Asia Hogan-Rochester scored another try for Canada and the Aussies were scrambling. Then Piper Logan scored the insurance try for Canada with less than two minutes left, despite a valiant effort by Teagan Levi to stop the try. Australia’s hopes for gold ended with a jarring 21-12 loss to Canada.
United States vs. New Zealand
The United States played in its first-ever semifinal match at the Olympics against defending the Olympic champions from New Zealand. The American women held their own against the rugby powerhouse in the first half, but New Zealand's offense proved to be too much, dashing any U.S. hopes of a gold medal with a 24-12 victory.
Three-time Olympian Alev Kelter and Kristi Kirshe scored the tries for the Americans. Michaela Blyde and Stacey Fluhler each scored two tries for the Black Ferns.
New Zealand advances to the gold medal match, while the U.S. will have a chance to play for Bronze.
France vs. Ireland
France looked to put a disappointing quarterfinals loss behind them and, to the delight of the sold-out crowd, the hosts were able to beat Ireland 19-7 and will face China for fifth place at the Paris Olympics.
France's bad loss to Canada clearly had a hangover effect on the squad in the first half as they looked worse than they have all tournament. Ireland’s Eve Higgins capitalized with her fourth try of the Games, the lone score in the first half.
A day after questionably not starting in the quarterfinals (she had scored four tries in the early match), France’s Seraphine Okemba broke through to score two tries.
China vs. Great Britain
Great Britain, on the last play of the match, committed an unforgiveable mistake to fall to China, 19-15.
Isla Norman-Bell made a fatal error as time expired in the match and threw the ball out of bounds, which is illegal to end a match. A rattled Great Britain was unable to stop Hu Yu’s game-winning try and China advanced to play in the 5th – 6th placement match.
Ellie Kildunne scored the first try of the match for Great Britain, but China used space to its advantage to score two unanswered tries.
Great Britain answered with two tries of its own around the half, including a try by three-time Olympian Jasmine Joyce.
Placement matches
A disappointing tournament for both South Africa and Fiji came to an end in the 11th-12th place match. Australia emerged with the 21-15 victory in their final match of their Olympic debut.
Back-to-back yellow cards proved too much for Fiji to overcome in the first half. Australia’s Nadine Roos scored two tries in the first half.
Fiji showed some life in the second half, scoring three unanswered tries by Kolora Lomani, Verenaisi Ditavutu and Talei Wilson but it was too little too late. South Africa finishes the tournament in 11th place and Fiji in 12th.
The second of the placement matches featured Japan and Brazil. It was all Japan as they rolled to a 38-7 win. Japan had six different scorers in the affair. Yasmim Soares scored Brazil’s lone try.