Paris | For four days, the Australian women’s rugby sevens team had a seemingly inexorable lock on the Olympic gold medal. In a matter of minutes, the dream was over.

In the semi-final, a streaky sprint down the field by Canada’s Charity Williams for a try at the very end of the first half seemed to shake the previously fluent and confident Australians, and the game simply ran away from them. There would be no gold or silver for the World Series champions.