George Gregan’s sledge seems to ring true for the Australian women’s Sevens after missing a medal in the Olympic final.
All I can say as a fan I love watching the women play, the skill joy and adventure makes me smile. Keep your heads up, ladies, and use the disappointment as fuel. Congratulations on the result, we are still proud of you.
This from Pravda
A tearful Charlotte Caslick has been left to ponder what went wrong as Australia’s rugby Sevens golden ambition evaporated inside three long hours in the Parisian sun. The recent world series champions and Rio gold medallists had cantered into Tuesday’s semi-finals and looked on track for a blockbuster showdown with Tokyo title-winners New Zealand.
But, on a day where temperatures reached the high 30s, a moment of inattention swung their entire campaign. Canadian Charity Williams played villain, catching the Australian defence off guard to sprint away for a surprise try that sparked one of the Games’ biggest upsets. Leading 12-0, Australia never recovered and the 21-12 loss relegated the shell-shocked side to a battle for bronze with USA less than three hours later.
Again Australia scored first before conceding and, at 7-7 were left hammering the USA line in the final 90 seconds before a try – Maddison Levi’s second and an Olympic record 14th for the tournament – appeared to have sealed a consolation medal. But, from nothing, Alex Sedrick shrugged a tackle and ran 85 metres, converting her own try to spark wild scenes and mount more misery on Tim Walsh’s side.
USA had beaten Australia in the Tokyo pool stage, Caslick’s side also missing the medals there when shocked by Fiji in the quarter-final stage. But this one, after such a dominant tournament and brilliant lead-in form, particularly stung.
“I’m pretty gutted,” Caslick said. “It’s the beauty of sevens and sport; that’s why we play it. It’s a game of moments and there’s probably a few things we would have loved to do differently, but we can’t take that back. It sucks, obviously; we want to come home with a medal, we’re the ones that train every day to have this feeling.”
Their campaign theme was “no regrets” and coach Tim Walsh insisted there remained none, describing it as “cruel” to label fourth place a failure. “Triumph and disaster; they are both impostors and you have to treat them the same way,” said Walsh, paraphrasing Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”.
Walsh, who is off contract and pondering whether he will continue in the role, agreed that the try at halftime against Canada had been a pivotal moment in their campaign. “Winning and learning … a bit of winning and a bit of learning,” he mused. “I wish we did a bit more winning and it would have been a better end to the season.”
Moana Pacific signing Ardie Savea – Opinion
The signing od Ardie Savea is fantastic news for the beleaguered club in isolation but does show the real problem with Super Rugby.
I have long said that for Super Rugby to be successful players need to be free to travel between clubs. This is what engages fans across the entire competition. I was pointed to the What A Lad pod where Timoti Tavatavanawai was interviewed; he pointed out that if he were to play for Fiji it would affect his ability to hold a contract with the Highlanders. This is sub optimal for the competition as a product.
For Super Rugby to succeed from a commercial perspective it needs to create a better narrative along the lines of the NFL where fans are engaged through the off season. Imagine a story of Beauden Barrett to the Force or Fraser McReight to the Blues.
The problem as I see it at the moment there are too many people who want the other teams to fail so that they can be the ruler over the ashes.
Who replaces Fraser McReight?
The Wallabies have suffered another blow to their loose forwards with Fraser McReight suffering a thumb injury during the Welsh series. He joins Lian Wright also out with a shoulder issue.
I’d give Carlo Tizzano the opportunity. During the course of the Super Rugby season he topped the tackle count with 32 more than Dalton Papaili. He’s also a dog over the ball and would bring the right amount of crazy to the contact zone.
