The Olympic women’s rugby medal game featured the expected dominant New Zealand team, with the iconic Portia Woodman-Wickliffe playing her final international match.
The unexpected opponent was a Cinderella Canada team that had knocked off home team France in the quarterfinals and stunned Australia in the semifinals.
The challengers had the champs on the ropes, but a curtain call substitution in the second half forged a second straight Olympic gold medal for New Zealand and the first for the nation in these Olympic Games.
New Zealand led 14-12 in the final four minutes what had been a mix of hard hits and great open-field running on both sides. Woodman-Wickliffe, who is one of the out LGBTQ athletes in Paris, left the game to a rousing ovation at Stade de France with speedy Stacey Wakka subbing in.
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Two minutes later, Wakka ended a sequence of smart passes by the Black Ferns to the clinching try in a 19-12 New Zealand win.
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The Canadians refused to be an easy foil. A tough, sure tackling defense led by team captain and Team LGBTQ member Olivia Apps held New Zealand to seven points in the first half.
That defense also bracketed Woodman-Wickliffe, who has 256 career tries in rugby sevens.
On this day, the icon’s best plays were on defense, but one of those was damaging. Canadian Charity Williams was darting from her own try line and had an open field.
Woodman-Wickliffe’s 33-year-old legs still had the juice to run down Williams near midfield, but she received a yellow card and a two-minute penalty for her high tackle.
With New Zealand a player down, Apps asserted herself with a splitting drive through defenders at midfield with 58 second left. Hemmed by two defenders, she pitched off to an open Chloe Daniels who strolled in for the tying try. It was the second key assist for Apps of the medal round. Her lineout lift and pass set up the winning try against Australia in the semifinal.
The Canadians grabbed the lead during first half stoppage time. Alysia Corrigan pilfered an errant pitch and raced 30 meters, with Woodman-Wickliffe giving a furious but futile chase, to score the try and head into halftime leading 12-7.
Canada’s aggressiveness and spirit carried into the second half, but they ran into the same patience and persistence New Zealand used to beat Team USA in their semifinal. The Black Ferns turned their first possession into a passing clinic that opened a crease for Michaela Blyde to score a try with 6:34 that gave New Zealand a 14-12 lead.
The rest of the second half found Canada unable to score and New Zealand working their game and the clock to forge a win and send a legend out as a champion once more.
