Snap your fingers, and four years’ worth of hard work was on full display over the past week at the 2024 Olympic Rugby sevens.
Picking up where the men’s competition left off, the women’s competition was a superb spectacle as the game’s top athletes firmly put rugby on the wider sporting map. At a competition where the most elite athletes the world has to offer to show off their skills, there is a very real argument to be made that the Rugby Sevens players were the cream of the elite crop.
Defending their title, New Zealand proved once again to be at the peak of what every other nation are striving to be. Closing the gap was the surprise package of Canada, who gave the Black Ferns all they could handle in the final as they built on their exceptional dispatching of the all-conquering Australian side.
In a competition jam-packed with top-line quality, here is the RugbyDump Olympic sevens dream team.
1. Alysha Corrigan – Canada
Fizzing past the Black Ferns’ defence to nudge her side into the lead at half-time in the final to cap off a highly impressive campaign. Prior to the final, Corrigan had been a workhorse for her team, hitting rucks, making carries into contact, and putting in crucial tackles to free up the lethal Canadian finishers.
2. Jorja Miller – New Zealand
Alongside fellow youngster Risi Pouri-Lane, Miller played with a maturity beyond her age. Doing the hard yards when her team needed her to, the 20-year-old was a go-forward machine throughout the competition. Summing up what it meant to play alongside some legends, Miller said, “To be alongside those girls, they’re absolute legends who have paved the way for players like me, for younger players.” Whilst she won’t say it herself, Miller is well on the road to becoming a star of the sport.
3. Stacey Waaka – New Zealand
The biggest moment in her team’s season? Sure, no problem; Waaka is happy to take it on! Taking her team’s first lead since the first minute, her try with two minutes to play was the difference between the two teams in the final. This score would be the seventh of the competition for the Black Ferns dynamic forward.
4. Risi Pouri-Lane – New Zealand (Captain)
Shouldering the weight of expectation of a nation, the Black Ferns skipper set the tone of the final with the first try of the contest. Directing the action with supreme confidence, the 24-year-old proved without any doubt that she is the player who will drive the Black Ferns forward as they look to defend their title in four years’ time.
5. Caroline Drouin – France
France’s points machine knocked over fifteen conversions to go with her seven tries for what was a mightily impressive haul. Losing out to eventual finalists Canada at the time felt like someone of a shock result given how impressive Les Bleus looked with Drouin central to everything they did well.
6. Maddison Levi – Australia
Despite flattering to deceive when it mattered most, the Australians blitzed through the competition until the final four. Key to this success was Levi’s outrageous try-scoring ability as she crossed the whitewash fourteen times. This stat line surpasses both the most tries and most points scored at a single Olympics. In summation, Levi just seemed to have extra gear, unlike any other player in the tournament; the 22-year-old multi-sport talent is one of the brightest stars in Sevens rugby.
7. Michaela Blyde – New Zealand
Second on the try-scoring list with ten tries, the former World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year scored a crucial early second-half try in the final as she slipped through three Canadian defenders. This moment was a snapshot of her career as she proved to be a truly clutch player exactly when her team needed her.
Replacements:
8. Caroline Crossley – Canada
Firmly at the peak of her powers, Crossley went toe-to-toe with the potent Black Ferns forwards in the final just hours after dominating the Australians for the bulk of the semi-final.
9. Olivia Apps – Canada
Canada’s cerebral playmaker was a major reason her team turned the competition upside down during the knockout stages. Setting up Chloe Daniels for her team’s first try with a well timed offload, Apps direct approach had the Black Ferns pedalling in the first half of the final. Keeping a 100% conversion record when called upon is another crucial stat from her tournament.
10. Séraphine Okemba – France
Stade Francais’s ultra physical had a big-time championship with seven tries, four of which came against the USA to top Pool C. Whilst her attacking prowess grabbed the headlines, Okemba’s defensive ability was key to her team’s fast start to the competition where they scored 75 unanswered points on the opening day.
11. Chloe Daniels – Canada
Scoring her team’s first try in the final, to go with her quarterfinal try against France, Daniels’ ability to spot a gap and pace to finish the move was exceptional. Overall she finished up with two tries and five conversions with both of her tries obviously coming at key moments.
12. Ilona Maher – USA
Bringing a hard edge to this USA side, Maher had some highlight reel moments both in the carry and in defence as her team claimed a historic bronze medal. Rugby’s most followed athlete on social media with 2 million instagram followers is an all out superstar of the game both on and off the pitch.
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