If we learned one thing this weekend in international women’s 7s, it’s that the USA is good enough to win an Olympic Gold Medal.
Don’t get us wrong, that prospect is still difficult to get, and the Eagles didn’t win in Toulouse, they came second, but despite playing without star Ilona Maher, the Americans played some of their best team rugby and had New Zealand on … OK well maybe not on the ropes plural, but on one rope anyway.
Pool Play
The theme of pool play was the emergence of a more confident and aggressive Alena Olsen. The USA halfback was taking the attack to the opposition and that was seen in the first try of the tournament—Olsen cut through with confidence and switched nicely with Naya Tapper.
Olsen then ran weak off a scrum and put a perfectly-times pass off to Lauren Doyle for the USA’s second. Overall, the Eagles dominated a good Canada side, and even as the Canadians scored twice late, the margin was too big for them.
Against New Zealand in the second pool game the USA were tied 12-12 at halftime. They scored a nicely-taken try off a restart when Cheta Emba offloaded to Spiff Sedrick, who went in from long range. Olsen then ran off the back of the scrum and sold a somewhat outrageous dummy and was through.
Yes, New Zealand rolled in the second half, but the Eagles didn’t seem intimidated at all.
The USA finished off a with a predictably dominant showing against Poland.
Actually, the Poles held onto the ball for quite a while and seemed to think they could do that forever. But an ill-advised grubber bounced off Emba’s foot and she gathered before sky-hooking to Sam Sullivan, and the West Point grad was off.
Kayla Cannet faked to Sedrick off a scrum but then Sedrick cut inside to take the pass anyway and was through. This was the sort of play the USA had not been showcasing early in the season. They can do this kind of misdirection stuff and it works.
Emba won the restart and set up Alev Kelter, and then Emba was at the end of a long sequence and it was 26-0 at halftime. A slower second half saw Steph Rovetti over but the USA was always in control.
Quarterfinals
Team defense and team attack work put the USA past Fiji. When the space wasn’t there the Eagles wisely brought it back to their support, and Tapper did that twice rather than force the issue. The result was Cannet setting up Sullivan for a well-taken try.
Fiji then bobbled the restart and when pressure from Tapper forced a drop Kelter was there one-on-one and from short range she’s hard to stop.
Fiji responded, scoring a try in which Cannet was blindsided off the ball. But after that the Eagles sent Emba through the middle hard and she set up Kris Thomas.
That made it 15-5 at halftime and Tapper and Doyle combined to make it 22-5 before Fiji started to creep back. Not perfect, but somehow they got out of it and kicked to touch to end the game.
