Over 40,000 fans at Hong Kong\u2019s Kai Tak Stadium were treated to four memorable quarter-finals featuring history being made, tries galore, nervous moments, and some big guns flexing their muscles.<\/p>\n
QUARTER-FINALS<\/p>\n
Maddison Levi rewrote the history books as Australia clinched a semi-final with France \u2013 with New Zealand and Canada to meet in the other last-four showdown \u2013 on a rip-roaring day two of the Cathay\/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.<\/p>\n
Mercurial Aussies 7s star Levi scored in her side\u2019s emphatic 45-5 quarter-final win over Fiji to overtake Portia Woodman-Wickliffe on the all-time try-scoring list and set a new record of 257 touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Levi, 23, actually bagged a double to hit 258 tries and Tia Hinds also went over before Teagan Levi got in on the act with a double and Heidi Dennis scoring too.<\/p>\n
Adi vani Buleki scored for Fiji but this was all about Australia and the record-breaking exploits of a delighted Maddison Levi.<\/p>\n
She said modestly: \u201cThe main thing to celebrate is getting the win because we\u2019re through to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome to get these individual achievements but I have to thank the girls beside me and the goal for the weekend is to win gold in Hong Kong.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s defence of their Hong Kong title is still on after they progressed to a semi-final against Canada with over 40,000 fans in attendance \u2013 a new record for Hong Kong sevens for a single day attendance.<\/p>\n
The Black Ferns Sevens beat Spain 32-5 in the quarter-final to flash an ominous warning sign of their title pedigree.<\/p>\n
Their tries came from Kelsey Teneti, Jorja Miller, Risi Pouri-Lane (two), Mahina Paul and Stacey Waaka with Spain replying through Carlota Caicoya.<\/p>\n
Waaka called for improvements from her side in tomorrow\u2019s semi-final against Canada, saying: \u201cWe need to be clinical in cutting out our errors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re giving away possession too much but if we focus on us then I think we\u2019ll be sweet from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
France sealed their semi-final spot with a hard-earned 22-12 win over Japan.<\/p>\n
Anne-Cecile Ciofani bagged a brace with Lilou Graciet and Kelly Arbey also on target and Honoka Tsutsumi and Himawari Matsuda scoring for Japan.<\/p>\n
The first of the women’s quarter-final saw Canada edge out rivals USA 19-7.<\/p>\n
Charity Williams scored twice and Savannah Bauder also touched down with Ariana Ramsey replying for the USA.<\/p>\n
NINTH-PLACED SEMI-FINALS<\/p>\n
Great South American rivals Argentina and Brazil faced off in the first 9th Place Semi-Final \u2013 and it was the Brazilians who edged a hugely entertaining encounter 19-17.<\/p>\n
Sofia Gonzalez and Mar\u00eda Paula Pedrozo scored for Argentina either side of a try for Brazil by Thalia Costa.<\/p>\n
Costa then claimed her second and Leila Silva added a third before Gonzalez\u2019 second ensured a tense finish.<\/p>\n
In the second 9th Place Semi-Final, Great Britain claimed an eye-catching 19-14 win over South Africa.<\/p>\n
Reneeqa Bonner (two) and Ellen Scantlebury claimed GB’s tries with Shanidine Bezuidenhout and Maria Tshiremba touching down for South Africa.<\/p>\n
POOL A: Miller stars once again<\/p>\n
Jorja Miller took her try tally to the weekend to six with a brace in New Zealand\u2019s ruthless 38-0 win over Fiji.<\/p>\n
The Fiji team wore black armbands as a mark of respect and remembrance to their nation\u2019s former president Ratu Epeli Nailatikau following his recent passing at the age of 84.<\/p>\n
Although Miller claimed centre stage, Risi Pouri-Lane, Jaymie Kolose, Stacey Waaka and Maia Davis were also on target for the Black Ferns Sevens.<\/p>\n
Try-scorer Kolose said: \u201cWe were really pleased with that performance because we know that every game is a final from here.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew Fijiana were a physical team, so our role was to hit them hard and get them to ground. I think we did that well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Japan wowed the Hong Kong crowd with a stunning 34-7 win over Brazil to seal their quarter-final spot.<\/p>\n
Chiaki Saegusa, Natsuki Ouchida, Honoka Tsutsumi, Mei Ohtani and Wakana Akita (two) scored their tries with Leila Silva touching down in reply.<\/p>\n
A delighted Japan head coach Yuka Kanematsu said: \u201cI\u2019m really relieved to get the win and the support from the Japan fans here in Hong Kong is fantastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel so many people cheering for us and I\u2019m really happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
POOL B: Aussie 7s beat Canada in a thriller<\/p>\n
Maria Tshiremba claimed centre stage with a brace and Lerato Makua also got on the scoresheet as South Africa won 19-5 against Great Britain, whose sole try came from the prolific Katie Shillaker.<\/p>\n
There was a closer affair next up as Australia edged out Canada 19-17 in a thriller with Faith Nathan claiming a delightful brace and Teagan Levi on the scoresheet again.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s tries came from Charity Williams (two) and Florence Symonds.<\/p>\n
POOL C: France flex their muscles<\/p>\n
Spain edged out Argentina 17-12 in the opening game of day two.<\/p>\n
Juana Stella, Carmen Miranda Miralles and Denisse Gortazar with Talia Rodich and Marianela Escalante scoring in reply for Argentina.<\/p>\n
Another close-fought battle in Pool C saw France beat USA 19-14.<\/p>\n
Lou Noel, Anaick Konyi and Cleo Hagel scored for the French with Kaylen Thomas and Kristie Kirshe touching down for the Americans.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over 40,000 fans at Hong Kong\u2019s Kai Tak Stadium were treated to four memorable quarter-finals featuring history being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,1290],"class_list":{"0":"post-9345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}