While her teammates placed their hands on their heads in disbelief, France was celebrating on the field after stunning Australia 19-12 to reach its first Rugby World Cup Sevens final.
Green, an Olympic champion, scored Australia’s second try but then received a hard tackle and was escorted off for a head injury assessment. Australia led 12-0 at the time.
Chile and Ireland were also involved in an epic battle that went down to the wire. Ireland, winners of a bronze medal in the London round of the series, looked to be heading for extra-time against the battling South Americans until they worked Jimmy O’Brien over in the corner with time up, much to the relief of the Irish fans in the stands.
The drama continued into the round of 16 with an incredible comeback by Scotland to beat Kenya 31-26. The eighth seeds had trailed 26-0 against the Kenyans, who had battled past Tonga 19-7 in their opening match, but five second-half tries to the delight of the AT&T Park crowd. Scotland made the most of the space created by Belgium Tuatagaloa’s sending off for two yellow cards to storm back, captain Scott Riddell coolly sending Jamie Farndale over for the winner.
Argentina’s 28-0 victory over Canada was more straightforward before the drama continued as France shocked Australia. With two and a half minutes to go the scores were level at 17-17 before Les Bleus found Tavite Veredamu in space out wide and he had too much pace and power for Australia.
Fiji endured an intense battle with Japan to start their bid for a third RWC Sevens title and went in at half-time trailing the Asian champions 10-7. However, the footwork of captain Jerry Tuwai, one of five Olympic gold medallists in San Francisco, ignited the Fijian attack and three quick-fire tries from Josua Tuisova, Semi Radradra and Jasa Veremalua helped wrap up a 35-10 win.
South Africa faced no such problems against Ireland with Siviwe Soyizwapi becoming the first player since RWC Sevens 2005 to score four tries in a match in their emphatic 45-7 victory. That left the hosts to bring the curtain down on day one and, drawing on the euphoria of the crowd, they ran out 35-0 winners with captain Madison Hughes converting all five of their tries.
