Olympic Rugby 7s 2021 – Women

NZ Win Gold, France Silver, Fiji Bronze – Canada Defeat Kenya to Place 9th: Match Videos of Medal Round

The 2020 (2021) Olympic Rugby 7s may be remembered for the emergence of two nations that raised their game, Fiji and China.

Certainly Fiji deserves mention winning Bronze. In the World Rugby Series Fiji were good but not great, Canada beat them on a regular basis. They placed 7th in 2020, 10th in 2019, 9th in 2018. They’re now 3rd and Canada are 9th, they’ve switched roles. The question is can Canada regain their form in the next World Rugby Series.

Another nation that merits mention is China, they’ve come out of nowhere to place 7th at the Olympics. They finished ahead of Russia who finished 8th. China were 13th in 2020, 11th in 2019 and 12th in 2018 in the World Rugby Series.

Kudos to France who barely made the Olympics. They had to win the repechage but eventually won Silver, and of course NZ the Gold. Australia slipped in ranking finishing 5th and USA 6th.

Rugby Finals Match Video (includes Russia v China, Australia v USA, Fiji v GB, NZ v France)

1st to 4th matches
New Zealand 22–17 Fiji
Great Britain 19–26 France
Fiji 21–12 Great Britain
New Zealand 26–12 France

5th to 8th matches
ROC 7–35 Australia
United States 33–14 China
ROC 10–22 China
Australia 17–7 United States

9th to 12th matches
Canada 45–0 Brazil
Kenya 21–17 Japan
Brazil 21–12 Japan
Canada 24–10 Kenya


Canadian Women Shocked in 31-0 Loss to France – Fail to Make Quarter-Finals: Match Video

Most didn’t see it coming, Canada had a comfortable +49 point differential over China, for 3rd place quarter-finalist, going into the final pool match. If Canada defeated France or at least kept the loss competitive, they would advance to the quarter-finals. China came up big and defeated Japan 29-0, Canada lost to France 31-0 and suddenly that comfortable +49 buffer disappeared. China were ahead of Canada as one of the 3rd place finishers. There was still hope if NZ could defeat Russia by 34 points, a long shot but possible. NZ defeated Russia by an agonizing 33 points, meaning Canada and Russia were tied on point differential but the tie-breaker was points scored, 47 to 45 for Russia.

From 2016 Bronze medalist to a 9th place finisher in 2020, from a 3rd place standing in the last World Rugby series to 9th place in the Olympics, what has triggered their fall in performance? The question asked in February was, could the women’s 7s program be run by the senior players using an overseas coach as a figurehead and at the same time maintain their performance edge? The senior women had orchestrated the removal of their coach and program creator, John Tait, in February. That question has now been answered.

Other teams filled that performance gap. Fiji rose to the occasion, not only did they defeat Canada in the pool round but they’ve defeated Australia in the quarter-finals to make the medal round. Fiji will face New Zealand in one semi-final, Great Britain will face France in the other semi. France who had to qualify for the Olympics through the repechage are another team who upped their performance. China, perhaps, are the surprise team of the tournament, a bit of an unknown they made their way to the quarter-finals and were only defeated by France 24-10.

France v Canada Pool Match

Quarter-final Results

New Zealand 36–0 ROC
Fiji 14–12 Australia
United States 12–21 Great Britain
France 24–10 China


Canada Women 1-1 on Day One – Face France in Final Pool Round: Match Videos

The Canadian women started strong against Brazil and nailed down a 33-0 win as expected. The second match against Fiji, which was also expected to be a win, gave the Canadian women a wake up call. Fiji won the match 26-12, 4 tries to 2. Fiji had lost their first match 12-5 to France.

Canada will make the quarter-finals regardless of whether they win their final pool match against France or not but a loss will put them up against a tougher opponent. Canada have a +19 point differential so far, Russia have a +21 and China have a -30. China will likely be the team to miss out on the quarter-finals amongst the 3rd place teams.

In Pool A, New Zealand looked sharp going 2-0, Great Britain and Russia are both 1-1, Kenya is 0-2. NZ finish pool play against Russia while GB goes up against winless Kenya.

In Pool C, both Australia and USA are 2-0 and look to finish pool play against each other to determine top spot. Both Japan and China are 0-2, neither will likely make the final 8.

MATCH VIDEOS

Canada v Brazil

Canada v Fiji

Posted in National Women's 7s.