Team New Zealand predicted a dominant performance in the women’s Olympic rugby medal game, with iconic Portia Woodman-Wickliffe playing her final international match.
Their unexpected opponent was Canada, the Cinderella team that had defeated host France in the quarterfinals and stunned Australia in the semifinals.
The challengers pushed the champions into a corner, but a change of players during the second half curtain call gave New Zealand their second consecutive Olympic gold medal and their first of these Olympics.
New Zealand led 14-12 going into the final four minutes thanks to a combination of hard hitting and great open-field running from both teams. Woodman Wickliffe, one of Paris’ openly LGBTQ athletes, left the game to rapturous applause at the Stade de France and was replaced by speedy Stacey Wakka.
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Two minutes later, Wakka broke up a slick passing routine from the Black Ferns to score the winning try and give New Zealand a 19-12 victory.
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Canada was not going to be taken lightly, and their tough, sure-tackling defense, led by team captain and Team LGBTQ member Olivia Ups, limited New Zealand to just seven points in the first half.
The defence also thwarted Woodman Wickliffe, who has scored 256 tries in rugby sevens.
The icon’s best plays that day were defensive, and one of them was a deadly one, as Canada’s Charity Williams charged from her own try line and found herself in an open field.
Woodman Wickliffe, 33, still had the legs to chase down Williams near midfield but was given a yellow card and a two-minute penalty for a high tackle.
With New Zealand down one man, Ups took advantage with a split drive through the defenders in midfield with 58 seconds remaining. Surrounded by two defenders, she passed to a free Chloe Daniels, who slowly raced to the goal for the tying try. It was Ups’ second key assist of the medal round. Her lineout lift and pass led to Australia’s game-winning try in the semi-final.
Canada took the lead in added time of the first half when Alicia Corrigan stole an erroneously thrown ball, ran 30 metres and Woodman-Wickliffe gave chase in vain to score a try that put the score at 12-7 at the break.
Canada’s aggressive attitude and spirit carried over into the second half, but they were met with the same patience and tenacity from New Zealand that had defeated the U.S. in the semi-finals. The Black Ferns turned their opening attack into a passing exercise, with Michaela Blyde scoring a try with 6 minutes 34 seconds to go to give New Zealand a 14-12 lead.
Canada failed to score in the remaining minutes of the second half, leaving New Zealand racing against the clock to secure the victory and send their legends off as repeat champions.
Source: Outsports – www.outsports.com
