Rugby sevens teams step up to claim bronzes
England’s two rugby sevens teams battled back from bruising semifinal defeats against eventual winners New Zealand to leave the Gold Coast with bronze medals.
Looking to make the podium at the inaugural Commonwealth Games women’s rugby sevens competition, England failed to make the most of a strong period of second-half pressure in their semifinal as they were comprehensively beaten 26-5 by New Zealand, who went on to claim gold.
Abigail Brown’s side bounced back in style in the bronze-medal match against Canada, earning a 19-5 half-time lead as tries from Lydia Thompson, Debbie Fleming and Claire Allan proved just enough to hold off a late charge and triumph 24-19.
The victory went some way to avenging the defeat by the same opposition in the Olympic bronzemedal match two years ago.
“We put in an unbelievable performance,” said Amy Wilson Hardy. “Obviously Canada are a great team. It was good for us; it tested us. This is only the start for English rugby.”
England’s men fell to the Kiwis 17-12 in the semi-final, but hit back with an impressive 21-14 win over South Africa to claim bronze. New Zealand beat Fiji for the gold.
Dan Bibby had given England an early lead in their semi-final, but two tries from Regan Ware and one for Etene Nanai-seturo saw New Zealand to victory. Two tries from
Phil Burgess and one from captain Tom Mitchell then sealed the bronze medal win over a South African side left stunned by their golden point semi-final loss to the Fijians.
“It’s not easy because we came here to give ourselves a shot at the gold medal,” said Mitchell.
“But we have cultivated a lot of mental resilience this year so we decided we were going to park the semi-final defeat and enjoy the amazing experience.
“It always hurts and it will do for a while longer. But if you make mistakes you will get punished for it and New Zealand are an amazing side.”
Elsewhere, England’s husband and wife team, Chris and Gabby Adcock, successfully defended their badminton mixed doubles title by defeating team-mates Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith. Ellis then rebounded to win men’s doubles gold alongside Chris Langridge later in the day.
Daryl Selby and Adrian Waller had to settle for silver as they lost to Australia in the final of the squash men’s doubles, while table tennis pair Liam Pitchford and Ho Tin-tin also lost the mixed doubles final.
England’s final tally of 45 gold medals was their second highest at an overseas Commonwealth Games behind the 46 won at Auckland 1990. Wales and Scotland both set new records for an overseas Games, 10 and nine golds respectively.