Kiwis avoid major upset against US to reach Olympic semis

New Zealand are two steps away from claiming the first Olympic women’s sevens rugby gold medal after a courageous quarter-final win over the United States.

In the second half, the USA failed to take advantage of New Zealand’s Tyla Nathan-Wong being sent to the sin bin for two minutes after a late tackle, and the match ended with New Zealand on top, 5-0. “They like their offload game and that was going to challenge us on defence”.

New Zealand did not score less than 26 points in any of its first three matches in Rio.

The “Sevens Sisters” won a gripping contest 5-0 to set up a semi-final on Monday against Great Britain, the only other team with a ideal record in Rio.

It made for a tense few minutes as the New Zealand side scrambled to repel the waves of the USA attack, before Nathan-Wong entered the fray again with 30 seconds on the clock.

The Americans came desperately close to pulling off a major upset against the gold medal favourites, before Australia escaped with a 12-12 draw after a Emma Tonegato scored a try at the death, which was converted on the fulltime siren by Chloe Dalton.

“Today we grinded out wins which is what good teams need to do”, he said.

A yellow card for Tyla Nathan-Wong with three minutes to go compounded New Zealand’s hopes but a huge turnover by captain Sarah Goss in the final minute secured the tense win.

The third seeded Canadians, who were stunned 22-0 by Britain in their final pool match earlier on Sunday, recovered from a poor start against a fired-up French side to progress to the last four. “And we’re not happy with a bronze or a silver”.

The crowd grew from about 1,000 for the opening match to about half-full at the 15,000-seat Deodoro Stadium for the third game, Brazil’s opening match against Great Britain.

Litia Naiqato loped over the line with the ball in one hand to level the scores halfway through the first half but Britain responded with tries from Alice Richardson and Joanne Whatmore with Brown crossing again for the only score after the break. The Australian team said she had passed an initial head-injury assessment, and would undergo another test but expected she’d be cleared for the quarterfinals.