RUGBY SEVENS: The Australian Youth Olympic Rugby Sevens side has pulled off a massive comeback against a strong Chinese outfit to win their second match in Nanjing, China 15-12.
“It was a very gutsy win by our side,” said Tiana Penitani, who scored a double after marching as Australian Flag Bearer in the Opening Ceremony last night.
“It’s the Australian spirit to always fight to the finish. Things didn’t really go our way in the first half- we were down to China by a few points- but we always give everything we’ve got on the field.”
The Aussies opened the scoring through Penitani in the second minute before China’s Yueying Gao crossed the line for the home side three minutes later.
The great wall of Chinese defence seemed almost impenetrable until Laura Waldie put Dominique du Toit into space down the sideline. But, sure enough, a defender came from nowhere to wrap up du Toit in an awkward tackle and she was forced from the field before the end of the half.
China returned to the field after halftime with newfound creativity, as Tingting Wang chipped over the top of the Aussie defence in the middle of the field for Xiaoqian Liu to regather and score.
The Aussies stared down a 12-5 deficit before Penitani found her feet again, racing away some 70 metres to score her second and put the Australians within reach at 12-10 with two-and-a-half minutes to go.
Just as the Aussie hockey team in the stands found their voice and began to cheer on the Aussies, they quickly found they were outnumbered as the Chinese crowd came to life as the clock ticked down.
Caitlin Moran and Mackenzie Sadler were injected into the game and Penitani almost crossed for her third, pushed over the sideline just a metre from the tryline.
The Aussies picked up a scrappy ball following the lineout and Penitani’s fellow Co-Captain Brooke Anderson stood tall.
Anderson, whose defence had rattled the Chinese all game, shook off a tackle and threw the match winner to Kellie Gibson on the wing. Gibson still had work to do, but after scoring the historic first try of the tournament, this girl knows how to find the try-line.
Gibson scored with nine seconds left on the clock to wrap the match up 15-12.
“Luckily the girls were able to pull off what we’ve been practicing and we were able to counteract China’s game plan… We put in a lot of hard work towards the end so we’re quite happy with the win,” Penitani said.
After the opening two matches of five in the pool stage, Australia is now the only team with two victories.
Tomorrow (Monday) the Australians face USA at 9am local time and Spain at 5pm. USA had a mixed day, drawing with Spain before falling to Canada 19-14. The Spaniards went on to beat Tunisia, who are yet to win a match.
Australia and Canada face off on Tuesday ahead of semi-finals that afternoon. The medal matches will be held on Wednesday.
Taya Conomos
olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam
