By Mitch Phillips
PARIS (Reuters) - New Zealand's women avoided - just - the curse of being "too good" that dogged their men's XVs team for so long, as they were forced to dig deep and show their ultimate professionalism in their Olympic rugby sevens final victory over Canada.
Between 1991 and 2007 the All Blacks men were pretty much the best team in world rugby but when it came to the World Cup they kept failing, usually in the first stiff test they faced after cruising through their early games.
New Zealand's women arrived in Paris as defending Olympic champions and had won the last four world series tournaments in a row.
They began their campaign by beating China 43-5, then Canada 33-7 and Fiji 38-7. In the quarter-finals they chalked up an Olympic record 55-5 thrashing of China.
Their deadly strike runners and ferocious work were there for all to see but their defence, and its systems under pressure, was rarely tested.
So, in retrospect, they will probably be hugely grateful to the United States for keeping them honest in the semi-finals the favourites had to battled to a 7-5 halftime lead.
In the second half New Zealand took control to run out 24-12 winners but, not that they probably needed it, it was a reminder that in the short 14-minute burst of an international sevens match, things can turn quickly.
That was in evidence for all to see in the final as Canada, fresh from stunning Australia with a last-play score in their semi, scored twice in a minute to reach halftime 14-12 ahead.
New Zealand regained the lead soon after through the irrepressible Michaela Blyde but this was a very different Canada to the team brushed aside in the pool encounter.
There followed a fabulously intense five minutes as Canada stood up and went toe-to-toe with their illustrious rivals, who likewise refused to give an inch in a ferocious fight.
For all the exciting speed and movement of sevens, this was back to the trenches of hard rugby.
A day earlier Canada had broken the hearts of the Stade de France crowd by beating the home nation but the capacity crowd was right behind them on Tuesday, full of respect for what they were seeing.
Two points down, they were hammering at the New Zealand line, only for the wise old head of Kiwi co-captain Sara Hirini to engineer a key turnover and charge forward.
Knowing she did not have the legs to go all the way, she slammed the brakes on and turned to find, as she knew she would, three teammates thundering in support.
After three days of battle and in gruelling heat and humidity on Tuesday, it was a remarkable display of fitness and attitude and, outnumbering the backpedalling Canadian defence, they slung passes back and forth before sending Stacey Waaka over the line to seal the 19-12 victory.
(This story has been corrected to fix the years in paragraph 2)
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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