Women keep Gold medal dream alive

Sun, Aug 7, 2016, 8:17 PM
Chris Ford
by Chris Ford
A less convincing day for Australia with a shock draw against the USA before clicking into gear against Spain in the quarter-finals. Chloe Dalton speaks to the media ahead of their semi-final against Canada.

Australia’s Gold medal dream is still alive after accounting for Spain 24-0 in the quarter-finals.

The women will now face Canada on Tuesday morning (AEST) after they beat France.

It was a slow start to the first half as Spain tried to bring the tempo down but Alicia Quirk and Emma Tonegato combined after four minutes for Tonegato’s sixth Olympic try.

Charlotte Caslick again showed why she’s considered the best player in the world with a show and go to tear Spain’s defence apart and make the score 12-0 at the break.

Caslick kept up her form in the second half after bolting 80 metres to score under the posts and push the margin to 17 points.

Australia coach Tim Walsh then decided to ring the changes with five players making way as attention shifted to tomorrow’s semi-final clash against Canada.

Ellia Green completed the rout on full-time, showing no ill effects from her head knock earlier in the day, as she raced away to score.

Australia survived a scare earlier on day two, having to score a try after the full-time bell to draw with United States of America. 

USA physically tested Australia in a brutal encounter with the world number one side scraping to a 12-all draw.

Canada were the last side to beat Australia, after knocking them off in the final leg of the World Series in France.


Australia 24 (T: Tonegato, Caslick 2, Green C: Dalton 2)

Spain

Quarter-final results

Australia 24 def Spain 0

Canada 15 v France 5

Great Britain 26 v Fiji 7 

New Zealand 5 v United States of America 0

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