Sevens sisters su
THE New Zealand women’s sevens side is staking a strong claim to make history by winning the inaugural Commonwealth Games gold medal.
In their final match of pool play yesterday, New Zealand beat Canada 24-7 at Robina Stadium on the Gold Coast despite having two players yellow carded.
Gold Coast is the first Commonwealth Games to include women’s rugby sevens.
The final scoreline flattered New Zealand thanks to two late tries.
‘‘It was a tough match against Canada, a typical Canadian-New Zealand match,’’ New Zealand captain Sarah Goss said.
‘‘Canada are awesome. Their speed on the outside is amazing. We managed to get two tries to hang in there and we came away with that one, so we’re pretty stoked.’’
Fresh from 45-0 and 41-0 victories over Kenya and South Africa respectively on Friday night, a third straight win on the Gold Coast means New Zealand finish on top of pool A.
New Zealand made a sloppy start but a critical turnover from Theresa Fitzpatrick denied Canada a chance at first points.
And speedster Portia Woodman quickly made Canada pay with the opening try to give the Kiwis a 5-0 lead.
But New Zealand were dealt a blow late in the first half when Goss was sent to the sin bin for knocking down a pass.
She was soon followed by Michaela Blyde for a high tackle.
‘‘I was pretty gutted actually, just felt I was letting the team down,’’ Goss said.
‘‘By getting a yellow card, many had to cover, so I felt bad about that. That was unfortunate. Obviously we’ll try not to get any more of those.’’
Canada made the most of the advantage when Julia Greenshields scored and the resulting conversion gave Canada a 7-5 lead.
For a brief time, New Zealand were down to five players late in the first half after Blyde left the field for the high tackle on Greenshields as she scored Canada’s only try.
Blyde scored an unconverted try on her return to put New Zealand back in front 10-7 and then scored the match winner from a clever cross kick from Tyla Nathan-Wong to put the Kiwis in front 17-7.
The try was controversial with replays appearing to show that Blyde was in front of NathanWong.
Stacey Waaka scored right on the buzzer to blow the score out.
New Zealand will be back in action today in the semifinals.