RUGBY SEVENS: The Australians have given themselves every chance of topping the women’s Rugby Sevens pool after keeping another team scoreless at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
Australia defeated Spain 39-0 after leading 10-0 at halftime. There is still one match left in the pool stage- with Australia to play third-placed Canada tomorrow morning, but the Aussies remain the only side undefeated on 13 points and are guaranteed a place in the semi-final.
There is only one women’s pool at the YOG, with all teams playing each other in a round-robin format. In the semi-finals tomorrow afternoon, the first and fourth-placed teams face-off at 5pm local time, followed by the teams placed second and third at 5:30pm.
China and Canada both sit on 10 points- but with far inferior point differentials to the Aussies- 67 and 53 points respectively. The victory over Spain amplified Australia’s points difference- with 125 points to their name after four matches and just 12 points against for a points difference of 113.
“It’s very, very important to finish top of the pool- I can’t even explain it,” 16-year-old Laura Waldie said after playing every minute of the game against Spain.
“Not only is it important for pride as a team, but obviously to put us in a better position to get us into that final.”
The Australians were uncharacteristically slow out of the blocks in their second match of the day, taking five-and-a-half minutes to open scoring through prolific try-scorer, Kellie Gibson.
One minute later, an offload from Amber Pilley put Tayla Stanford over in the corner. With Raecene McGregor missing both conversions, the Aussies were up 10-0 at the half.
“We were really slow getting into it because we’ve had quite a few games, but then towards the end we could show that as a team we can lift and we put two (tries) on in a minute and we started to grow from that,” Waldie said.
Coach Scott Bowen stuck with his same starting seven to open the second half and the Aussies flew into action. Two-and-a-half minutes in, Tiana Penitani offloaded for Mackenzie Sadler who threw a dummy and ran 40 metres down the sideline and scored under the posts. McGregor added the extras to make it 17-0.
Bowen injected some fresh legs into the frame and two minutes later, Gibson put on a big tackle close to the try-line and Penitani collected the scraps to score.
With a minute-and-a-half remaining, a lovely ball from Shenae Ciesiolka to her winger Dominique du Toit saw Australia's top spot in the pool firming up. Caitlin Moran converted and then immediately off the kick off, AFL player Gibson regathered and put Stanford over for another try- a fourth for the forward today.
Co-Captain Brooke Anderson wove through tired defence in the final seconds of the match to add to Australia’s fairly unassailable lead in for and against.
The Aussies will enjoy some good music, rest and recovery before the match against Canada first thing tomorrow.
“That was a good stepping stone hopefully for our game against Canada which will be really hard,” Waldie said.
“Tiana, our captain, says every game is like a final- it’s really important. Canada is probably going to be another one of our hardest games which is why it’s an imperative win for us,”
Coach Bowen was proud of how his team kept two sides scoreless in one day- indeed the only team to score against Australia to-date is China who put on two tries yesterday.
“That second half against the Spanish was fantastic,” Bowen said.
“There were some classic tries in there that were reminiscent of the full national team. I was very pleased to see the girls keep the opposition to zero and nobody crossing our line today.”
In the other two matches tomorrow, fourth-placed Spain play China and fifth-placed USA play Tunisia. Spain sits on seven points but has a tough challenge against the home side, whereas USA- with 5 points- play winless Tunisia and could be a chance at leapfrogging Spain.
Taya Conomos
olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam
