Eagles win Plate at Amsterdam Sevens

from USA Rugby:

Photo Martin Seras Lima

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – It took a few extra minutes, but the Women’s Eagles Sevens defeated Spain 17-12 Saturday in the Plate Final of Amsterdam Sevens, the final leg of the inaugural IRB Women’s Sevens World Series.

The Eagles fell behind in the fifth minute after a bad Spain pass caused a misstep by the Eagles defender, allowing Berta Garcia to score the opening try. Laura Esbri’s conversion was wide, however, and the Eagles found themselves down 5-0.

Jillion Potter was rewarded for her tough defensive work all weekend with a nice juke to get through the Spain defense and a long run to score her first try of the tournament. Kimber Rozier nailed the conversion for a 7-5 Eagles halftime lead.

Potter and Vanesha McGee opened the second half with a huge combined hit on a Spanish attacker, and the rest of the Eagles followed suit with punishing hits for the remainder of the match.

Christy Ringgenberg was beaten to the outside in the 10th minute by Esbri for a try, and her own conversion gave Spain a 12-7 lead.

With time expired, Potter moved the ball to the middle of the field and created space for Victoria Folayan to showcase her speed on the outside and score the match-tying try. Ringgenberg’s conversion was wide, however, sending the game into extra time.

It only took two minutes to find the winner. McGee used her long strides on the left touch line to put the Spain defense in her dust and touched down in the try zone for the 17-12 win.

“We’re never satisfied,” Women’s Eagles Sevens Head Coach Ric Suggitt said of the Plate victory. “But we’re really happy.”

The Eagles won the Bowl in Dubai, finished second at home at Houston Sevens and finished fourth at Guangzhou Sevens. With the Plate victory and Canada’s Cup Final appearance in Amsterdam, the Eagles will finish the IRB Women’s Sevens World Series in fourth.

Up next for the Eagles is a month of preparation for the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Moscow in June.

“We’re going to take the next week relaxing and swimming in the ocean in San Diego,” Suggitt said. “Then we’ll go back to the drawing board and take a look at our pool opponents in Moscow. We’ll be ready.”

View the full results from Amsterdam 7s here.