Australia snatch play-off victory from jaws of defeat
Australia’s women snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the third-place play-off as a thrilling encounter with France finished 24-21.
The win was not enough to keep the Australians at the top of the HSBC SVNS overall season standings, though, as their rivals New Zealand went top on points difference by virtue of their margin of victory in the Cup final later in the evening.
All the same, they got a kick out of finishing on a high at a rocking Hong Kong Stadium.
“That was unreal,” said Madison Ashby, who scored the first try of the game for Australia.
“Before the game, our captain said we need to use the atmosphere from the crowd and bring it into our game.”
France were aggressive in their defence and tried to keep the Australians pinned back.
After a nervy four minutes in what was a contender to be the game of the weekend, Australia broke free thanks to the effort from Ashby, who was making up for lost time after previously missing three games of the tournament as a consequence of her red card in the opening fixture against Fiji. “Teams like France, like New Zealand, all the world-class teams, you’ve got to phase them out and then the space will start to open up,” Ashby said.
But France, who had beaten the New Zealanders in a pool fixture on Saturday, reminded a packed arena that this was not going to be a cakewalk and responded with two tries in quick succession.
Two minutes into the second half, France’s Chloe Jacquet added a try of her own to go alongside her three conversions.
Trailing 21-7 halfway through the second period, not many would have fancied Australia to pull it back. But they did.
Bridget Clark’s try in the 11th minute and Maddison Levi’s in the 13th took the score to 21-19.
With the final buzzer having sounded, Australia launched one last desperate attack and got the ball through several sets of hands before Maddison Levi dived over for her eighth and most important try of the weekend.
The French were inconsolable afterwards. Jacquet was not the only one in tears as they left the field, heading straight into the dressing room.
France coach David Courteix said he was “very proud” of the performance his side put in against “maybe the best team in the world”. “We’ve been very consistent, which is sometimes very hard for the French,” he said.