The Canadian National Women's Rugby 7's defeated heavily-favored France 19-14 to advance to the Olympic semi-finals.

Their win versus a powerful French side stunned almost 70,000 fans assembled at the Stade de France, but sparked celebrations across York Region's rugby communities.

Aurora Barbarians' flyback Chloe Daniels scored a try around the corner in the final minute of the quarterfinal match to spur her team to victory and secure a semifinal matchup with Australia.

The Sutton resident and first-time Olympian scored 9 of Team Canada's points.

Daniels got on the scoresheet in the first half as well when she converted Piper Logan's try to stake Canada to an early 7-0 lead.

The #3-ranked French—which pulverized Japan (49-0), Brazil (26-0), and the USA (31-14) en route to the quarters – took a 14-7 first half lead on the visitors. However, Logan scored another try off a scrum and Daniels converted to tie the match late in the second half--setting the stage for the #5-ranked squad's last-minute heroics.

Team Canada opened the Paris Olympics with a 17-14 win over Fiji in a pool play match at the Stade de France on Sunday in front of a record-breaking crowd of 66,000.

It was an historic day for the Canadian rugby squad as the narrow three-point win was their first Olympic victory over the Fijians.

In the fourth minute of play versus Fiji, Florence Symonds scored a try to put Team Canada on the board and Aurora Barbarians' Chloe Daniels converted to make it 7-0.

Charity Williams and Keyera Wordley added tries for Canada to provide the 3-point margin of victory over Fiji.

The 7s squad lost their second game of pool play to another Pacific powerhouse as New Zealand defeated the valiant Canadian side 33-7, but rallied to beat China 26-17 in Game 3 on the strength of a pair of tries by Williams to advance to their quarterfinal match with France.

By Jim Stewart