They woke up as favourites for gold. They left Stade de France in tears with their fans

A tearful Charlotte Caslick has been left to ponder what went wrong as Australia’s rugby sevens ambitions evaporated inside three long hours in the Parisian sun.

The recent world series champions and Rio gold medallists had cantered into Tuesday’s semi-finals and looked on track for a blockbuster showdown with Tokyo title-winners New Zealand.

But, on a day when temperatures reached the high 30s, a moment of inattention swung their entire campaign.

Canadian Charity Williams played villain, catching the Australian defence off guard to sprint away for a surprise try that sparked one of the Games’ biggest upsets.

Leading 12-0, Australia never recovered and the 21-12 loss relegated the shell-shocked side to a battle for bronze with US less than three hours later.

Again Australia scored first before conceding and, at 7-7, were left hammering the Americans’ line in the final 90 seconds before a try – Maddison Levi’s second and an Olympic record 14th for the tournament – appeared to have sealed a consolation medal.

Teagan and Maddison Levi are comforted after the women’s sevens side’s loss in the bronze-medal match.Credit: Getty Images

But, from nothing, Alex Sedrick shrugged a tackle and ran 85 metres, converting her own try to spark wild scenes and mount more misery on Tim Walsh’s side.

The US had beaten Australia in the Tokyo pool stage, Caslick’s side also missing the medals there when shocked by Fiji in the quarter-final stage.

But this one, after such a dominant tournament and with their brilliant lead-in form, particularly stung.

“I’m pretty gutted,” Caslick said. “It’s the beauty of sevens and sport; that’s why we play it.

Teaghan Levi after Australia’s heartbreaking loss to Canada in the semi-final.Credit: Getty Images

“It’s a game of moments and there’s probably a few things we would have loved to do differently, but we can’t take that back.

“It sucks, obviously; we want to come home with a medal, we’re the ones that train every day to have this feeling.”

Their campaign theme was “no regrets” and Walsh insisted there remained none, describing it as “cruel” to label fourth place a failure.

“Triumph and disaster; they are both impostors and you have to treat them the same way,” said Walsh, paraphrasing Rudyard Kipling’s poem If.

Walsh, who is off contract and pondering whether he will continue in the role, agreed that the try at half-time against Canada had been a pivotal moment in their campaign.

“Winning and learning ... a bit of winning and a bit of learning,” he mused. “I wish we did a bit more winning and it would have been a better end to the season.”

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