SAINT-DENIS, France — Now that they’ve reached the Olympic semifinals for the first time, Ilona Maher and the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team could be just 15 minutes away from a shot at a gold medal.
Maher sent Charlotte-native Naya Tapper into the clear to score the first try for the U.S. in the quarterfinals Monday night and went close to scoring herself in a 17-7 win over Britain.
Now for the tougher part: a semifinal Tuesday against defending Olympic champion New Zealand for a place in the night final at Stade de France.
The New Zealanders trounced China 55-5 in the quarterfinals and appear to be peaking at the right time.
So does 2016 gold medalist Australia, with Maddison Levi scoring three tries in a 40-7 quarterfinal win over Ireland to increase her tournament tally to an Olympic record 11.
“Record try scorer sounds pretty good but Olympic gold medalist would sound even better, so hopefully we’ll get that tomorrow,” Levi said. “I wouldn’t be getting these accolades if it wasn’t for the team beside me . . . “
It was the second meeting of the day between those teams and quite a contrast after the Australians only narrowly won 19-14 to finish the group stage unbeaten.
The world sevens series champions will face a Canada lineup coming off a 19-14 win over host France.
The French had wrapped up top spot in their group with a win over the U.S. earlier Monday but their loss in the quarterfinals meant two of the three medal-winning women’s teams from the Tokyo Olympics didn’t make it back to the medal rounds.
France won a silver in Tokyo but were confident of going one better and delivering the host nation a golden double in Paris after the men’s team led by Antoine Dupont beat two-time champion Fiji to clinch the title on Saturday night.
Monday’s two sessions attracted more than 120,000 spectators at Stade de France, a record for women’s rugby sevens. Many parochial French supporters left disappointed after Chloe Daniels scored the winning try for Canada.
The Fijian women took bronze in Tokyo but haven’t won a game in Paris, losing to Canada, China and New Zealand in the pool stage.
Sevens rugby, which features seven players on each team playing on a full field, is fast and full of attacking opportunities. All 12 teams play two 14-minute matches daily across three days, and it can be exhausting.
The Americans rebounded from their pool-stage loss to France with the come-from-behind over Britain that finally gave them a spot in the final four.
Maher played an instrumental role in the first U.S. try in the night game, drawing in two defenders on an angled run and using her big fend to brush off a tackler, then release Tapper into the clear to score in the left corner.
She made another barging, long-range run just before halftime, only stopped by some brilliant cover defense from Jasmine Joyce. Then Kristi Kirshe beat two defenders to score first after the halftime break and give the U.S. a 12-7 lead.
With three minutes to go, Kirshe stepped inside one tackler and fended off two others in a bustling run before flipping a pass to Sammy Sullivan, who sprinted into the right corner to extend the cushion to 10 points.
“Yeah, that was a fingertip try,” said Sullivan, a U.S. Army captain. “I think God was behind me on that one.”
The win avenged a loss to the British at the same stage in Tokyo three years ago, which has served as motivation for Maher and her teammates ever since.
“Our team has never been in this position before,” said Sullivan, a first-time Olympian. “I know for a lot of the girls, it was kind of payback for last Olympics. But for me, coming in new, it was just really about wanting to make those girls proud from Tokyo and show up for them.”
The New Zealanders tussled all season with Australia for top spot in the world sevens series, finishing on top after the league stage but then missing out at the series finale in Madrid, where Australia took the title.
The New Zealand women haven’t lost an Olympic semifinal, beating Canada at that stage before losing the final to Australia in 2016 — when rugby sevens made its debut at the Summer Games — and edging Fiji after extra time at Tokyo before beating France in the final.
For the U.S. to end that record Tuesday, Sullivan said, “It’s going to come down to us minimizing mistakes and us continuing to back ourselves in what we do.
“We’re playing an American style of rugby, you know, hard, fast and resilient. So tomorrow is just about playing our game and just not giving them too many opportunities.”