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Tim Walsh 'devastated' after Australia's women suffer shock loss to Canada

Tom Decent

Australian women's sevens coach Tim Walsh has described his side's shock loss to eventual champions Canada in the semi-finals of the Sydney Sevens as "devastating" and "simply not good enough" while conceding the pressure of playing at home may have got to the squad. 

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Upsets set up North American women's final

The USA and Canada upset New Zealand and Australia respectively to set up an all American Sydney Women's Sevens final.

Coming into Australia's inaugural sevens tournament as hot favourites, the Pearls looked to be on track for a Cup final with the USA after Ellia Green went over for a try in the first minute.

But it was all Canada from there with some excellent work at the breakdown and neat passing. They won 12-7. 

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A sold-out Allianz Stadium was reduced to near silence as the Rio Olympic champions trudged from the field in an equally deflated state. 

And to make matters worse, hours later Australia suffered its second consecutive loss, going down 19-0 to New Zealand to finish fourth overall for the tournament. 

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Before this weekend, the women's team had featured in seven of their last eight finals in World Series tournaments, but Olympic bronze medallists Canada were able to avenge their loss to Australia in the semi-finals of the Rio Games. 

"It's devastating," Walsh said. "It was a fantastic atmosphere. We did everything we could to go out there and perform and they gave everything but it wasn't good enough. We made some pretty crucial errors and got punished for it." 

Players in the lead up to the tournament spoke about why there was more pressure trying to win in Sydney than in Rio six months ago. 

Walsh said the squad might need some more work in that department given the "ridiculous" pressure heaped on players like Charlotte Caslick, voted the world's best last year. 

"It's that cross between getting really excited and deflecting all those distractions," Walsh said. "That probably got to us a little bit and as young girls, who are now very recognised as elite athletes, the reality is that's what you're going to have to do to keep at the top ... to perform under incredible pressure. You don't get much more [pressure] than Rio but playing at home ... is also a hell of a lot of fun but shattering." 

Captain Sharni Williams said: "We just didn't really show up for the second day. We didn't play to our potential. We can play 10 times better than that but we didn't come up and show that this weekend and it's pretty tough in front of our family and friends." 

After cruising through the pool stages on Friday, Australia started their second day of competition in a healthy manner, beating Fiji 17-5. 

Playing out the back of Allianz Stadium on Kippax Field in front of a strong contingent of Aussie fans in makeshift stands, Australia once again hit the lead through Green who ran more than half the field to score one of the tries of the day.

Overall though, Walsh conceded their best efforts weren't good enough in what is a serious reality check following a purple patch in 2016. 

"We had glimpses of what we're good at and it's not enough in a World Series," Walsh said. "They are going to make mistakes, that's life. You're not just going to win everything all the time. You'd like to, but we've got to maintain that consistency and stay at the top. We've got another game to go and we've got another round in Las Vegas at the end of the month. It's not the end of the world, it's a game that we've lost. We need to build on that." 

However, after a second placing in Dubai, Australia's women are still a chance of winning back-to-back World Series titles. 

Meanwhile, Canada knocked off USA in the Cup final, running out 21-17 winners. 

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