New Zealand women are into the IRB Paris Sevens final - but their hopes of winning the overall series title have been dashed by rivals Australia.
The Black Ferns Sevens have booked a showdown with the series leaders, easing past Spain 38-0 in the quarter-finals and Canada 34-7 in the semis.
But they entered the tour's final event needing to finish two spots ahead of the Aussies to overtake them on the points table - that simply won't happen now.
The Kiwis will be ruing a poor performance in the series opener at Dubai, way back in November, when they lost a quarter-final to the United States and could only finish fifth. Australia would beat the Americans in the final.
"Obviously we're disappointed, but we had things we could control earlier in the year and didn't take care of that," reflected coach Allan Bunting.
"Everything happens for a reason, and the learnings we got from that made us what we are at the back end of the series and especially at the Commonwealth Games."
The Black Ferns stunned Australia with a walk-off try for gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and have since won IRB world series tournaments in Japan and Canada.
At Paris, they never let Canada into their semi-final contest, scoring two tries - one converted - before the North Americans opened their account.
From that point, the game was a procession, with the Black Ferns scoring six tries, including a double to Tyler Nathan-Wong.
On the other side of the draw, France gave the Aussies a shock, scoring 17 unanswered second-half points to lead into the final minute.
But Emilee Cherry crossed for the matchwinner, converted by Emma Sykes, to seal their series triumph.
New Zealand face Australia in the women's final at 3:30am Monday (NZ time).
Meanwhile, the All Blacks Sevens have qualified through to the men's quarter-finals, finishing second to series leaders Fiji in their pool.
They accounted for Kenya (24-5) and Samoa (22-17), before falling to the Fijians (26-17). New Zealand will take on the United States at 8:57pm Sunday.
Newshub.