Hayne hopes to be selected for the Rio Olympics in August.
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The likes of forward Jesse Parahi, who started the season at NRL outfit Wests Tigers, and affable former Wallaby Nick Cummins will get a chance to cement their places in Friend’s best lineup with pool games against Wales, England and Fiji.
Norton scored a superb second try before Australia-born Hayne, whose father hailed from Fiji, was introduced for the final four minutes.
Hayne, who won two Dally M Medals in the NRL before playing a season in the National Football League with San Francisco, announced another high-profile code switch earlier this week citing a dream to play in the Olympics.
Fiji are World Series Sevens champions for the second time in two years, after gaining enough points on day one at Twickenham to see off the challenge of South Africa. “Some of the most athletic players, both men and women, showcase their skills over a game where it’s seven minutes a half, a minute break, and go at it again”.
“It’s been great, they’ve accepted me really well”, Hayne said.
Fiji confirmed Hayne on Friday for his rugby sevens worldwide debut, as an injury replacement for Vatemo Ravouvou.
On Sunday, Fiji will play France in the quarterfinals.
Rugby Sevens may have been conceived in Scotland and legitimised and popularised here in Hong Kong, but its ancestral soul is Fiji.
Kenya’s Collins Injera became the World Sevens Series’ highest try-scorer of all time, his 231 tries taking him one ahead of Argentina’s Santiago Gomez Cora.
England’s victory over Fiji remains the standout result after two rounds of action at the London Sevens.
More matches will be the solution to that problem, but with Rio just three months away, and Fiji with a host of stars to return from injury, Hayne will be under no illusion that he has a mountain to climb to realise his Olympic ambitions.
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“But Grigory Rodchenkov who was head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory didn’t just saying we’re not going to test you – he actually got in there, took out the positive samples and just replaced it with clean urine”.
