Great Britain 28-12 Ireland
Ireland have finished eighth overall after defeats to France and Great Britain in the women's rugby sevens at Stade de France.
Having missed out on a place in the quarter-finals following a 40-7 quarter-final reversal at the hands of Australia last night, Allan Temple-Jones' side were left playing for pride in the placings, before a 19-7 defeat to the hosts France was followed by a 28-12 loss against Great Britain in the 7th/8th place play-off.
The defeat to Great Britain followed a 21-12 loss to the same opposition in their opening game on Sunday, and Ireland got off to a poor start this evening when Stacey Flood's yellow card for a high tackle was followed instantly by a try for Megan Jones, which gave Britain an early 7-0 lead.
Despite the early setback, Ireland settled into the contest, and after a scrum in the Great Britain 22, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe's powerful carry up through the middle led to space on the outside, as Megan Burns finished off the opening Irish try.
Eve Higgins was off-target with the conversion as Ireland trailed 7-5, but by half time they had a mountain to climb, allowing Jade Shekells and Jones in for quickfire tries before the break, with both converted to extend the lead to 21-5.
Within a minute of the restart the result was effectively put beyond doubt, as Heather Cowell broke from the 22 to run in under the posts and score to put 23 points between the sides at 28-5.
To Ireland's credit, they didn't throw in the towel, and a try from Claire Boles (above) - who replaced the injured Beibhinn Parsons - in the final minute, which was converted by Flood, saw them finish the game off with a consolation score.
It capped off a disappointing campaign for Ireland, who ended up in the 7th/8th place play-off after a 19-7 defeat to hosts France earlier this afternoon, with Higgins' try in the opening half briefly seeing Ireland lead, before an impressive second half by the French.
"It was a disappointing finish to the Olympics for us but the overall feeling is pride because it has been an incredible journey with this group," Temple-Jones said.
"Playing in front of so many people at the Stade de France is unbelievable for us and we've got to learn from that now moving forward.
"It was our first Olympics and we've got to use this experience now to grow as a squad and grow the depth within our group. Exposing young players to an Olympics like this and in a stadium like this is going to be a real strength for us going forward into next season and beyond. We hope our players grow from this and we're back in Los Angeles in four years' time."
Meanwhile, New Zealand retained their title from Tokyo in 2021 as they ground down the tournament's surprise package Canada in this evening's final to win the gold medal, coming from behind to win 19-12..
Canada, who are coached by Dubliner Jack Hanratty, had produced a shock for the ages in reaching the final, knocking out hosts France in the quarter-final and then a well-fancied Australia in the semis.
However, despite leading 12-7 at half time they couldn't hold out against the defending champions, as tries for Michaela Blyde and Stacey Waaka saw New Zealand come from behind to make it back-to-back Olympic gold medals for their women's sevens team.
Earlier, there was a surprise result as the USA upset Australia 14-12 to win bronze.
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