April 8, 2016
Women’s Eagles 7s Move to Atlanta 7s Cup QF With Win vs. Japan
Doug Coil
The second Atlanta Sevens Pool match for the USA Women’s Eagles 7s found them playing Japan. Richie Walker started all the match one reserves along with Captain Jill Potter and Bui Baravilala.
Japan kicked off to Japan and the Eagles immediately went on the attack with Potter attacking and offloading to Heavirland. The ball was spread wide and Richelle Stephens raced in for a try from the Wing. Bui Baravilala converted and the Eagles had a quick 7-0 lead.
Kristen Thomas quickly increased the lead with try from the wing. Baravilala converted again. Eagles 14-0.
A loose pick by Nicole Heavirland had her racing near in-goal. A tap and go from a penalty resulted in a Kate Zackary try. Baravilala was perfect with her third conversion. Eagles 21-0 at halftime.
Meya Bizer kicked off to begin the second half. Bonny, Doyle and Javelet entered with fresh legs. Bui Baravilala moved the ball inside Japan’s 22. The ball was moved left to Lauren Doyle who showed her polish and difficulty in bringing down. Javalet moved the ball inside 5 meters. Kate Zackary picked up the ball and had a second try. The lead increased to 26-0.
Japan showed it’s resilience with multiple team offloads before a try resulted. The conversion was good. They then added another try in the corner to narrow the Eagles lead to 26-12.
That fired up the Eagles as they displayed excellent attacking rugby with multiple phases before the Eagles took advantage of numbers for an easy Megan Bonny try. Alev kelter converted and the final was 33-12 in favor of the USA.
The USA will play Japan next at 5:04pm ET. The match is geoblocked in the USA, but the match is available on the new The Rugby Channel. Subscriptions are available.
Keep up with the Atlanta 7s action by viewing on by following the results at World Rugby. Results Twitter: Atlanta Sevens World Rugby Sevens
Women’s Eagles Sevens | HSBC Atlanta Sevens
1. Jillion Potter (C) 2. Megan Bonny 3. Kate Zackary 4. Meya Bizer 5. Ryan Carlyle 6. Nicole Heavirland 7. Alev Kelter 8. Bui Baravilala 9. Lauren Doyle 10. Richelle Stephens 11. Kristen Thomas 12. Jessica Javelet Coach: Richie Walker
USA Starters v Japan: Bizer, Zachary, Potter (c), Baravilala, Thomas, Stephens, Heavirland
Other Pool matches
- Recap v Spain W 24-0
- v Japan W 33-12
- v. New Zealand – Friday, April 8 @ 7:26 p.m. ET
