U.S. women utilize speed, power to reach semifinals
The U.S. women’s team showcased some of the tournament’s best combinations of speed and power on the first day of the Rugby World Cup Sevens on Friday.
What may not have been so obvious is that Team USA apparently has the world’s top water distributors, too.
After allowing Russia to get within a try in the final two minutes of a quarterfinal at a deafening AT&T Park, U.S. head coach Richie Walker relayed a message to his players via the water girls.
“We know what we can do, and we know that we’re strong finishers. We just had to remind them of that,” Walker said after the fifth-seeded United States held on to beat fourth-seeded Russia 33-17. “I sent the message in with the water girls, and once I saw the players nodding their heads, I knew we’d start playing our game again.”
Daria Shestakova’s scoring try with fewer than two minutes to play trimmed what was once a 21-5 U.S. lead to 21-17. But the United States responded by scoring twice in the final minute to advance to
the semifinals against topseeded New Zealand.
“It’s obviously going to be a very hard game,” said wing Naya Tapper, who scored the quarterfinal match’s first two tries in diverse fashions. “It’s not going to be easy, but we know that we can challenge them. We’ve seen it. The world has seen it.”
Tapper scored in the second minute, getting the ball in space on the right side and simply outrunning the Russian defense. She added another try about three minutes later, when she used a stiff arm to shed one tackler and then darted away from the defense from the left flank.
“We’ve got speed, but we’ve also got people who are just plowing over people,” Tapper said. “… We’ve got everything you could possibly dream of, and as long as we do what we need to do to put it all together, we’re unstoppable.”
That appeared to be the case in the U.S. team’s round-of-16 victory over China earlier Friday. Tapper scored the first try in that one, too, and then the United States reeled off 31 straight points to close out the 38-7 victory.
“One thing the captain (Nicole Heavirland) said to me was: ‘You make me want to be good,’ ” Tapper said. “I think that’s what the whole team was feeling. By me going out there and doing my job, it helps everybody else do their jobs.”
No. 1 New Zealand 45, No. 9 Ireland 0: Led by dynamic wings Michaela Blyde and Portia Woodman, who combined to score five tries, the defending champions extended their winning streak to 25 matches.
No. 2 Australia 34, No. 10 Spain 0: The 2016 Rio Olympic champions ended the title chase for upset-minded Spain, which had shocked Fiji 19-12 in the round of 16. Australia advanced to Saturday’s semifinals against France behind an Evania Pelite hat trick and a dominating defensive effort.
No. 6 France 24, No. 3 Canada 19: Caroline Drouin muscled her way to a buzzer-beating try that ended the most thrilling match of the day. Canada overcame 12-0 and 19-12 deficits, but it couldn’t stop France’s final push.