With France's 21-5 defeat of Ireland in the final pool game of the Women's Rugby World Cup, the USA has qualified for the semifinals, making the top four for the first time since 1998.

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The Eagles won the first ever Women's Rugby World Cup in 1991 (picture below), and lost in the final in 1994 and 1998 before finishing a disappointing 7th in 2002. They then took 5th in 2006 and 2010, and 6th in 2014. This year, the USA had a hard road to get to the top four.



The three pool winners all make the semis automatically, and the fourth team is the best 2nd-place country. At first glance, it looked like Canada would lock that up with two big wins over Hong Kong and Wales. But two things happened to change that scenario. First off, Canada failed to score four tries against Wales, and so missed out on a bonus point. Secondly, the USA managed to get four tries in all three games, including Thursday's 47-26 loss to England.

One wonders if the extra time together, which was made possible by Irish Rugby Tours sponsoring the team for a pre-World Cup assembly in Belfast, helped fuel that offensive effort.

So Canada's superior points difference ended up not being a factor in the tiebreaker among 2nd-place teams. Canada ended up 2-1, with 9 standings points. The USA was 2-1 with 11 standings points. The only question was whether Ireland would beat France. If that happened, and France earned a bonus point, then Ireland (3-0, 12 or 13 points) and France (2-1, 11 points and a better points difference than USA) would make the semis, and the Eagles would be out.

But it didn't work out that way. France scored two early tries and held on, leaving the standings like this:

Women's Rugby World Cup Pool Standings
POOL A	W	L	T	PF	PA	PD	BT	BL	Pts
NEW ZEALAND - x	3	0	0	213	17	196	3	0	15
CANADA - y	2	1	0	118	48	70	1	0	9
WALES - y	1	2	0	51	74	-23	1	0	5
HONG KONG	0	3	0	15	258	-243	0	0	0
POOL B	W	L	T	PF	PA	PD	BT	BL	Pts
ENGLAND - x	3	0	0	159	44	115	3	0	15
USA - x	2	1	0	93	59	34	3	0	11
SPAIN	1	2	0	27	107	-80	0	0	4
ITALY	0	3	0	33	102	-69	0	0	0
POOL C	W	L	T	PF	PA	PD	BT	BL	Pts
FRANCE - x	3	0	0	141	19	123	2	0	14
IRELAND - y	2	1	0	48	52	-4	0	0	8
AUSTRALIA - y	1	2	0	46	82	-36	1	1	6
JAPAN	0	3	0	43	125	-82	0	0	0
x= clinched place in Cup Semifinals
y=clinched place in Consolation Semifinals

The USA will play the #1-seed team, which looks to be New Zealand, August 22 in Belfast.