It's 5th place for the USA Women's 7s team at the Olympics in Rio, and at times the Eagles showed those flashes that might have been good enough for a medal.

On Saturday the Eagles tied Australia 12-12 and lost, unluckily, to New Zealand 5-0. Those two teams made it to the Gold Medal game, and one wonders, if the USA had beaten Fiji in their opener, what might have transpired. Had they beaten the Fijians on Saturday, the USA would have met Great Britain in the quarterfinals, a team they could well have beaten.

But none of that transpired, and the USA instead found themselves in the 5th-place semis against Fiji, which they won 12-7, and then finally hit their best scoring form against France in the 5th-place final. The French had the run of play, and certainly the run of the calls from English referee Sarah Cox, in the first half. A series of penalties against the USA eventually led to France going over for the try and a 5-0 lead.

The Eagles had a good chance to score at the end of the first half, but a weird call in the ruck ended that.

But the second half was very, very different. From the kickoff, Jillion Potter went up high. The ball might have been knocked back by Potter, or lost forward by the French, but either way, the ball rolled perfectly back to the player who had kicked off - Alev Kelter. The red-haired scrumhalf picked the ball up and just took off straight up the middle, and went in for the try. Kelter hit the crucial conversion, too, to take the 7-5 lead, and after that, the USA tactic of chasing that restart worked beautifully for them.

The next restart led to a French knock-on and a USA scrum. From there the Eagles worked it to the right. Passing left, the USA players still had trouble hitting their mark, but this time, instead of trying to pick up a low ball, the USA backs left the ball roll, and then regathered. That worked nicely, and then Potter sent a solid pass to Jessica Javelet, and the speedster put on two moves and raced into the corner. 12-5 USA.

From the next restart, the USA won the ball again, and Kelter looked to find some space, but was caught. From the ruck, though, Joanne Fa’avesi sold a little dummy, fended off a defender, and took off up the middle. Kelter slotted the goal, and it was 19-5..

And that's how it ended. This was the only game against highly-ranked teams (thus, not counting Colombia) where the Eagles scored more than two tries. Their offensive philosophy worked well once they got that initial try, and fans and the players must be feeling as if they were just so close to scoring a few more earlier in the tournament.

But 5th, with a record of 3-2-1, seems fair. The USA had some bad luck and some bad decisions, but ultimately showed how very, very hard it is to win an Olympic medal.

5th Place Game

USA 19

Tries: Kelter, Javelet, Fa'avesi

Convs: Kelter 2

France 5

Notes: Over the Olympics, the USA scored 16 tries. Of those, Kelter scored five, and Jessica Javelet four. The rest of the players scored seven, of which five were scored against Colombia. Kelter scored a total of 39 points; the rest of the team scored 59, of which 34 was scored against Colombia. Against Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, and France, Kelter accounted for 50% of her team's points, and Javelet accounted for another 30%.