New Zealand’s Back-to-Back Gold and More from Women’s Rugby Sevens Paris 2024 | WRR 164

Women’s Rugby Rundown News

7s

Olympics

• New Zealand won the Gold medal, Canada the Silver and USA Bronze
  • New Zealand (Gold)
    • The Black Ferns are the first to ever win back-to-back Gold medals [link]
    • Black Ferns Sevens deny Canada, defend Olympic Gold [link]
    • Gold again! Black Ferns Sevens beat Canada to defend Olympic title [link]
    • Portia Woodma-Wickliffe scored 17 tries, which is a first across Women and Men’s Olympics [link]
    • Tyla King is now the record holder for the most points scored in Olympic History (89) [link]
    • The Gold Medal Haka was spine tingling and worth a rewatch! [link]
  • Canada (Silver)
    • Canada’s Women’s Sevens team wins historic Olympic Silver Medal in Paris [link]
    • The Silver Medal is the Maple Leafs best-ever result in rugby men or women [link]
    • Advances to semifinal in Paris with stunning win over France [link]
    • Canada has now taken down the Black Ferns in the Pacific Four and toppled the HSBC SVNS Grand Final winner, the Wallaroos [link]
    • The team thanks their supporters [link]
    • Inspiring the next generation of girls as their combined speed, strength, and stamina captured the Silver medal [link]
  • USA (Bronze)
    • Relive the last gasp try and conversion by Alex Spiff to propel USA to their second ever Olympic Medal [link]
      • 100 years between USA’s least two Olympic rugby medals; 1924 Paris Olympics (XVs Men) and 2024 Paris Olympics (7s) [link]
    • USA won with the only woman head coach in the Olympics (and HSBC SVNS) [link]
    • The Annunciation to the Shepards, by Leandro Bassano, early 17th c. has been redone and features Alex Spiff [link]
    • The Eagles received $4M from Michele Kang and Kynisca shortly after winning the bronze medal to aid them in getting a Gold medal at LA 2028 [link]
    • USA wins another Olympic Medal, the last was for the men in 1924 for when XVs [link]
    • USA’s Ilona Maher becomes most followed rugby player on social media, surpassing double men’s Rugby World Cup winning captain Siya Kolisi as profile of women’s rugby continues to rise [link]
    • Cisco Lopez and Kat Roche made history as the first-ever U.S. referees to officiate at the Olympic Games. Roche went even further by taking the whistle for the Women’s Olympic Gold Medal match. [link]
  • Australia (Fourth)
    • The Wallaroos crashed out of the semi-finals as Canada continues their legacy as giant killers and then feel to the USA in the Bronze match
    • Maddison Levi set a new Olympic record scoring a phenomenal 14 tries across the tournament
    • OptaJonny went further sharing that M. Levi scored the most tries (14), gained the most metres (553), beat the most defenders (21) and made the most line breaks (12) at the Olympic Women’s Sevens
    • Teagan Levi assisted the most tries (8) and made the most offloads (7)
  • France (Fifth)
    • Despite their strong ranking and performance in the HSBC SVNS, Les Bleus were expected to excel, but were stunned as they crashed out in the quarterfinals against Canada. They bounced back to win the 5th/6th match over China. [link]
  • China (Sixth)
    • China was the surprise team this year, beating Fiji 40-12 on Day 1, keeping it close with Canada 17-26, and then falling to the Black Ferns in the quarterfinals 55-5. But they didn’t stop there—they beat Great Britain 19-15 in the 5th place semifinal, and ended up placing 6th overall after losing to France in the 5th/6th Final. [link]
    • For a team that had to work their way through the Challenger Series, then they were undefeated at the World Rugby Sevens Repechage Tournament. [link]
    • They are already on the HSBC SVSNS circuit for next year, having replaced South Africa and their play at the Olympics is a good omen for the program. [link]
  • Ireland (Eight)
    • The Irish, who had some success in the HSBC SVNS but faltered towards the end of the series, went 1-2 in pool play, lost to Australia in the quarterfinals, and then fell to GB to place eighth. [link] 
    • A viral clip of Erin King holding up Emily Lane after a restart has 35.1 million views and counting [link]
  • Fiji (Twelfth)
    • The Tokyo 2020 Bronze Medalists lost all three of their pool matches, then lost in the 9th place semifinal, and ultimately placed twelfth after falling to South Africa. [link]
  • After an epic Women’s Rugby Sevens Paris 2024, here are the final standings [link]:
    • New Zealand
    • Canada
    • USA
    • Australia
    • France
    • China
    • Great Britain
    • Ireland
    • Japan
    • Brazil
    • South Africa
    • Fiji
      • It’s interesting to review these because, compared to the end of the HSBC SVNS Series, there are some surprises! Australia dropped from second to fourth, France from third to fifth, USA moved up from fourth to third, Canada jumped from fifth to second, and China went from unranked to sixth! [link]
• With 500,000 attendees, the Rugby Olympics event became the most attended in the history of both the HSBC SVNS and the Olympics [link]
• Lots of celebrity support over the women’s tournament:
  • Flavor Flav hanging with the USA team [link]
  • Former First Lady, Michelle Obama celebration USA [link]
  • Hugh Jackman congratulates Canada [link]
• World Rugby and the IOC keep removing clips from social media, which is hindering the game. Sharing these clips would absolutely skyrocket the sport’s popularity. FREE THE CLIPS! [link]
• The retirements of legends like Naya Tapper, Portia Woodman, and Lucy Mulhall were expected but we’re sad to see them go!
  • We know there are others but it’s becoming too many to track!
• Sam Love Rugby crunches the data on rugby interest over the past 5 years, showing Google searches skyrocketing at the onset of the Olympic Sevens, jumping for the men’s final, nearly doubling for the women’s final, and tripling for “what is rugby,” “how to play rugby,” and “rugby clubs near me.” [link]
• After Paris, what next? Ali of Scrum Queens takes on how women’s rugby can continue building [link]
• The misleading “Save Women’s Sports” crowd is using the Olympics to spread transphobia, resulting in all female greatness being questioned, challenged, and diminished. [link]
  • When an athlete is singled out for speculation about whether or not she is a woman – especially in the context of sex testing remaining a deeply problematic ‘nude parade’ under the guise of scientism and medico-legal language – our first duty of care should be towards her as a human. Such policies, rather than making sport safer, place girls, women, and gender non-conforming people at risk. [link]
  • This is the end game of the anti-trans hysteria in sports, that all female greatness in athletics will be diminished, challenged and asterisked. [link]
  • Gender-critical activists have swiftly moved on from saying being born female is the only way they will refer to you as a woman, and now, at some point in your life, you will probably need a blood test to prove you are a biological woman. [link]