RUGBY SEVENS: The Australian women’s rugby sevens side will play trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand in the Rio 2016 Gold Medal match after seeing off the brave challenge of Canada this afternoon at Deodoro Stadium.
Emilee Cherry scored a first half brace and Chloe Dalton added the other midway through the second period as the green and gold defeated the Canadians three tries to one in a clinical performance in front of a crowd in excess of 10,000. A try with 45 seconds left on the clock from Charity Williams for Canada proved no more than a consolation.
Australian women’s sevens Head Coach Tim Walsh said: “That was a world-class performance. The really pleasing thing was the core skills we demonstrated throughout. The theme before the game was that we have done the work, now have the belief to go and carry it out.
“The way we have gone through the tournament has been pretty pleasing and the players are pretty excited to take to make the final. They’ll rest up, recover to make sure they are good to go for the final.”
A bold decision to take a tap penalty after the half-time siren paid dividends with Cherry scoring her second of the game to take the Aussies 12 points clear. On the call, Walsh explained: “We’re a fit team and we knew we had them on the ropes – we could have kicked for touch and gone in at half-time at 7-0 but we didn’t want to leave the game with any regrets. We just had to go with it.”
New Zealand progressed to the Gold Medal match after beating in-form Team GB 25-7 in the other semi-final, with outside back Portia Woodman once again the star of the show scoring a hat-trick. Woodman has scored a tournament-leading nine tries in the competition thus far and Walsh acknowledged the threat she possesses to his team.
“How do you stop Woodman? She is an incredible player – very powerful, very quick. She has dominated women’s rugby from a power, speed and points point of view for quite a few years now. Of course we have plans for New Zealand and we need to step up and execute them.”
Co-captain Sharni Williams added: “We have high expectations of ourselves so we’ll look at what we need to improve and come back ready to take on New Zealand in the gold medal match.”
The Gold Medal match versus New Zealand will kick off at 8pm AEST (7pm local time).
Final score: Australia 17 (T: Cherry 2, Dalton; C: Dalton) Canada 5 (Williams C)
Steve Stammers
olympics.com.au
