Canada win in Amsterdam – and GB go to Rio

In fact it was a day filled with tension as England, the United States and France battled for the one remaining automatic Olympic qualification place.

Again, as in London, the four European teams were all drawn in separate quarter-finals. Were up first against Australia, but they were missing some top players and were 12-0 down at half time, due to tries from Emma Tonegato and Charlotte Caslick. A typically “energetic” half-time team talk from coach Pavel Baranovsky didn’t have the desired effect and a further three scores saw the Aussies run out 31-0 winners.

England were up next against New Zealand in a game they had to win. An early try from Amy Wilson Hardy got them off the mark, but it wasn’t long before Kayla McAlister stepped past Emily Scarratt to run halfway down the pitch to score under the posts.

Natasha Hunt put England back in front before the break. Sarah Goss put the new series champions back in front again, but with two minutes to go Emily Scarratt went over in the corner to put England a point ahead – a lead they hung onto to knock New Zealand into the plate for the first time.

The USA now had to win their quarter-final against a newly confident Spain, but Lauren Doyle scored a hat-trick and Megan Bonny scored two as Spain were swept aside.

France took the field in Amsterdam to face Canada knowing that a loss would see them officially out of Olympic contention. Missing several front-liners and perhaps suffering the effects of the back-to-back tournaments, the French were no match for the focused Canadians and couldn’t even register a score as Canada won 33-0.

The pressure was now back on for England and the USA in the semi-finals. First it looked like Australia had done the States a good turn as they comfortably beat England. Emma Tonegato opened the scoring, and despite some hard work, England had no real response to the tries that followed from Parry, Pelite and Emile Cherry.

USA just had to beat their great rivals Canada and they’d be in Rio. It was a close affair with the Americans, but Canada showed their class and tries from Harvey, Landry and Paquin were enough to give John Tait's team a 19-14 win, and the Americans were left to face a winner takes all match with England.

It proved to be an amazing game, fully deserving of the occasion. England dominated possession in the first half, but the US defence was like a wall and it was the States who lead 7-0 until Marlie Packer’s arm proved just long enough to reach the line from the final play of the half. Even so at 7-5 the States were in the driving team at the break.

It took some real brilliance in a move that started with ball with Amy Wilson-Hardy, found its way to Jo Watmore who – despite slipping – managed to get the pass away to Emily Scarratt, who then scored in the corner. England were ahead. Shortly afterwards Packer was on hand with a crucial turnover that opened the way for Watmore to dance through the US line to give England 15-7 advantage.

The US were not finished, however, and Alev Kelter scored with seconds left – but England won the subsequent restart, taking third place and sending Britain to the Olympics.

Speaking after her team ensured Olympic qualification, an emotional captain Abi Chamberlain admitted it was a massive day for all the team.

"It's the dream isn't it? It's probably been one of the best and hardest years of my life. We've worked our backsides off to be in this position and we did it. All credit to USA because they were fighting right down to the end.

"There are games when you go in and you have some doubts and there are games when you know you're going to win... and before that game, the feeling was that we were going to do this. We've proved that we're able to get that far and we're only getting better," said Chamberlain.

The final itself was just as dramatic, with the lead changing seven times. Australia’s Emma Tonegato was brilliant with two tries that put seemed to have put Australia on the front foot in the final, but Canada kept it close with a brace from Paquin and one try from Harvey. It finally fell to Ghislaine Landry to bring home the bacon for Canada and set off scenes of jubilation among their travelling family and friends in Amsterdam.

The elation was obvious on the smiling face of captain Jen Kish: "Words cannot describe it, it was a long time coming," she said.

"In previous tournaments we weren't capitalising on other team's mistakes and they were capitalising on ours. We came out on top but it could have easily been Australia. I feel we were the better team today. Our goal was to walk away with the cup and right now I'm speechless!" said the captain.

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Elsewhere New Zealand took the plate with confortable wins over Russia and France, and Spain finished a season-best seventh, running into form just as the European Championships come around. Fiji took the bowl again, beating the China and their Dutch hosts who finished 11th.

The first day of the second level competition - the Silver Pier - saw over a dozen other national teams in contention. Ireland and Wales qualified for day two without conceding a point, and will be joined by (amongst others) other pool winners Germany, Amazonas (Brazil's development team), France Development, Maple Leafs, champions Tribe, Wooden Spoon and Scotland and runners-up Finland, Poland, Switzerland and Czech Republic as well as invitational teams Susies, Vixens and West Coast Vikings.