Under the Posts – Women’s Rugby News for Jul 19-Aug 1

Welcome to the top women’s rugby news for Jul 19 – Aug 1. We’ll start with the Olympics where New Zealand has conquered Tokyo and now holds EVERY title in women’s rugby in 7s and XVs. Incredible!

France took home the silver after only qualifying for the Games through the World Rugby Sevens Repechage last month. Fiji barely missed out on the gold final but faced Great Britain in the bronze medal match. They beat GB 21-12 and won their country’s first women’s rugby Olympic medal, and only their country’s third ever!

Australia took fifth overall, redeeming themselves of an earlier defeat by USA but winning 17-7 in the rematch. China placed seventh after a comeback from 10-0 down to beat  Russia (ROC) 22-10.

Canada placed ninth with a 24-10 defeat of Kenya, and Brazil beat Japan 21-12 to secure 11th place.

We’ve covered the troubles in the Canada 7s squad with John Tait being removed after an investigation when 30+ players alleged an environment of abuse and bullying. The troubles continued during Canada’s match against China when Canadian men’s assistant coach Jamie Cudmore tweeted out racist and disparaging remarks. At first Rugby Canada came out indicating they were conducting and investigation but a day later he was relieved from his coaching duties.

There was other rugby this week, in XVs news, something still isn’t right in Wales as recently appointed head coach Warren Abrahams is leaving to “pursue other ventures”. This follows a departure of skills coach Rachel Taylor and then a poor performance at the Six Nations where players and supporters highlighted that monetary and administrative support from the WRU is severely lacking.

Canada hosted thirty-four eastern-based athletes in Montreal for a week, Australia and New Zealand will host the O’Reilly Cup in September in a two-game series.

In domestic XVs news, Cell C Sharks ensured they will remain in the South Africa’s Premier Division next season when they beat the Mastercard Golden Lions 27-0, Canterbury still sits atop the Dr Farah Palmer Cup Premiership while Manawatu reigns in the Championship, Ireland has confirmed fixtures for the 2021 Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship beginning in late August and USA’s Women’s Premier League has switched to a spring league and will see matches start in April 2022.

We close out two weeks with 8 feature articles and 4 media.

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tl;dr: Under the Posts – Women’s Rugby News for Jul 19-Aug 1: New Zealand defeated France for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Rugby title while Fiji saw off Great Britain for the bronze. Australia took fifth over the USA, China placed seventh over ROC, Canada finished in ninth after beating Kenya and Brazil placed eleventh when they beat Japan.

Video Summary