Hannah Darling, Canada edged by England
Warsaw’s Hannah Darling and Team Canada won’t have Commonwealth Games bronze to go with their Olympic bronze.
Canada was edged 24-19 by England in the women’s sevens rugby bronze medal game Sunday at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
Earlier Sunday Canada fell 33-7 to the host Australia team in the semifinals.
Australia faced New Zealand in the gold medal game.
Canada, which won bronze at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was without team captain Jen Kish at the Commonwealth Games due to injury.
England rebounded after losing 26-5 to New Zealand in the other semifinal.
Canada won its opening two pool games Friday, with Darling earning a try in each game, but lost to New Zealand 24-7 in their final pool game Saturday.
A bronze medal would have increased Canada’s total at the games to 83, one more than the 82 earned four years ago in Glasgow. The men’s basketball team collected medal No. 82 earlier Sunday in an 87-47 loss to Australia.
England led 19-0 in a first half that saw Canada leak two tries while captain Ghislaine Landry was off on a yellow card for a deliberate knockdown.
Bianca Farella scored a try for Canada on the stroke of halftime, but the English added another try early in the second half to increase their lead to 24-5.
Tries by Charity Williams and Sara Kaljuvee narrowed the deficit to 24-19 as a desperate Canada turned up the intensity with Hannah Darling driving Jessica Breach into the turf with a bone-jarring tackle.
The comeback looked to be complete when Williams beat two defenders down the touchline late in the game, but her looping pass was knocked on by Julia Greenshields.
England retained the ball from the ensuing scrum and kicked it out to end the game when the hooter sounded.