Ex-Wallaby wonders if Australia viewed Olympic semi as ‘a stepping stone’

Former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper was warned against “tempting fate” on Tuesday as the rugby world counted down the hours till two blockbuster women’s sevens semi-finals at the Paris Olympic Games.

Hooper, 32, had predicted that after the upcoming knockout against Canada at Stade de France, Australia would likely take on “the Kiwis in the final.” That drew an immediate reaction from fellow panellist and 20-Test Wallaby Morgan Turinui.

“Please don’t do that,” Turinui asked of Hooper. The idea of a pundit cursing a team or player in sports with an assured prediction is relatively common around the world, and disaster has struck once again after Hooper’s comments.

The Australian women’s sevens side were considered one of the clear favourites to challenge for a gold medal at the Paris Games but they’ll return home without making the podium after losing to Canada 21-12 and the USA 14-12.

“We made some pretty bold claims yesterday… they had two amazing days of play. They were, I thought, the best in the tournament to date, (Morgan Turinui) thought New Zealand which was fair enough as well. It was going to be those two in the final,” Michael Hooper said on Stan Sports’ Olympics Daily.

“As we see with sport, not to be.

“It’s (with) a heavy heart that you wake up this morning and see this result after getting… so early in the Canada game.

“They looked great throughout the start of both games, they looked like they’re going to get it done. So disappointed for them because it’s not any one moment, it’s just the compounding little moments that add up in sevens,” he added.

“It’s just a bunch of little things, hard to get back into the game, hard to claw back and we see there, the USA have no right to score that try. Unusual situation – a couple of missed tackles from people that don’t miss those types of tackles.

“That’s what pressure does in front of 70,000 people.”

Canada stunned the Parisian crowd with a win over France in the quarter-finals, but incredibly, the giant slayers backed that up with another solid win over Australia and they came close to upsetting New Zealand in the gold medal match.

Australia scored first through Maddison Levi and added to their lead through Sariah Paki, but the Canadians scored three unanswered tries to complete an all-time famous rugby sevens upset on the greatest stage of all.

Later, the Aussies looked to bounce back against Iloner Maher’s USA.

The women in gold appeared to be on their way to the Olympic podium after taking the lead through Maddi Levi with less than two minutes to play in the bronze medal match. But America snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a stunning individual effort from Alex Sedrick.

Sedrick had about three defenders on her but somehow managed to bump them off, with the American then showing impressive speed to run coast-to-coast to the house. The conversion secured the USA’s first women’s rugby sevens Olympic medal.

That led Hooper to question if the Australians have viewed that semi-final as a bit of "a stepping stone" before potentially taking on New Zealand in the big dance.

“I think we could certainly see it in that Canada match. The Aussie girls get out 12-nil ahead... the Canada team rolls in one try right before the half and that puts them in within a shout of the game,” Hooper explained.

“I think from there, I think the Australian team started looking at the scoreboard maybe because they were treating that game as, and we all were treating that game as a stepping stone to the final.

“Canada didn’t just do it in our game but they really gave the Kiwis a run in the final game, in the gold medal match,” he mentioned.

“They walk away with silver, super proud of that performance but they were also in with a shout of gold. It was incredible.”