Australian rugby sevens captain Charlotte Caslick has quickly deleted a social media post that showed her partying in a nightclub just hours after her side suffered a heartbreaking last-second defeat that robbed them of a medal.
A tearful Caslick has been left to ponder what went wrong as the side lost their semifinal to Canada on Tuesday, then saw the USA score at the last possible moment to rob them of bronze and leave the players crying uncontrollably.
However, on Wednesday she posted an image showing her partying in a nightclub surrounded by a group of men accompanied by the caption ‘4th on it but always 1st off it’ in a reference to the team’s fourth-placed finish on the field at the Olympics.
The post was only up for a short time before the 29-year-old – who was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to sport in 2017 – deleted it.
Caslick had earlier posted photos from the defeat along with the caption: ‘Heartbroken and real f**king sorry but always proud to represent Australia with these girls.’
The recent world series champions and Rio Olympics gold medallists had cantered into Tuesday’s semi-finals and looked on track for a blockbuster showdown with Tokyo title-winners New Zealand.
But, on a day where temperatures reached the high 30s, a moment of inattention swung their entire campaign.
Canadian Charity Williams played villain, catching the Australian defence off guard to sprint away for a surprise try that sparked one of the Games’ biggest upsets.
Australian rugby sevens skipper Charlotte Caslick put up – then very quickly deleted – this jarring Instagram post just hours after her teammates were left absolutely shattered in Paris
The footy star is pictured seconds after her team lost to the USA at the very last second, robbing them of a bronze medal
Leading 12-0, Australia never recovered and the 21-12 loss relegated the shell-shocked side to a battle for bronze with USA less than three hours later.
Again Australia scored first before conceding and, at 7-7 were left hammering the USA line in the final 90 seconds before a try – Maddison Levi’s second and an Olympic record 14th for the tournament – appeared to have sealed a consolation medal.
But, from nothing, Alex Sedrick shrugged a tackle and ran 85 metres, converting her own try to spark wild scenes and mount more misery on Tim Walsh’s side.
USA had beaten Australia in the Tokyo pool stage, Caslick’s side also missing the medals there when shocked by Fiji in the quarter-final stage.
But this one, after such a dominant tournament and brilliant lead-in form, particularly stung.
‘I’m pretty gutted,’ Caslick said.
Australia’s rugby stars were left in tears by the shock loss to the Americans
‘It’s the beauty of sevens and sport; that’s why we play it.
‘It’s a game of moments and there’s probably a few things we would have loved to do differently, but we can’t take that back.
‘It sucks, obviously; we want to come home with a medal, we’re the ones that train every day to have this feeling.’
Their campaign theme was ‘no regrets’ and coach Tim Walsh insisted there remained none, describing it as ‘cruel’ to label fourth place a failure.
‘Triumph and disaster; they are both impostors and you have to treat them the same way,’ said Walsh, paraphrasing Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’.
Walsh, who is off contract and pondering whether he will continue in the role, agreed that the try at halftime against Canada had been a pivotal moment in their campaign.
‘Winning and learning … a bit of winning and a bit of learning,’ he mused.
‘I wish we did a bit more winning and it would have been a better end to the season.’
New Zealand then rubbed salt into the wound, coming from 12-7 down to win the gold medal game 19-12 and defend their title.
Pictured: Aussie stars are consoled by crowd members after going from one of the favourites to take out gold to leaving Paris empty-handed
Caslick’s teammates were somewhat more contrite on social media following the defeat.
Faith Nathan posted a tearful picture on her Instagram and wrote a message to fans.
‘To our supporters sorry we couldn’t come home with a medal,’ she wrote.
‘To my family, thank you for being the best supporters ever. To my partner Kitty, thank you for picking me up when I had nothing in me. We love you all.
‘Once again sorry we couldn’t bring home anything. This one hurts the most.’
Dominique du Toit apologised to fans, saying she was ‘heartbroken’ and ‘sorry we couldn’t bring home gold’.
Maddison Levi said her ‘heart is hurting’ but that the team had given it their all.
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