Rio de Janeiro (AP) – It’s taken rugby 92 years to get back in the Olympic Games, and yet Argentina great Agustin Pichot called it the right moment.
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Pichot, a key member of the team which got rugby sevens approved for Olympics inclusion in 2009 and who has become vice chairman of World Rugby, could barely contain his excitement on Friday, the day before the competition begins.
Earlier on Sunday, Great Britain’s Abigail Brown scored less than 15 seconds into the match against Fiji.
Cherry participated in some light training on Friday and head coach Tim Walsh said there were positive signs.
“I’m proud of her, but at the same time there are a lot of media here and a lot of spotlight on myself and my sister, but for us it’s not about us two”, said Sonny Bill.
The Australians dominated the world sevens series last season, winning three of the five tournaments and reaching the final to replace New Zealand as No. 1 in the world.
New Zealand coach Sean Horan said having rugby sevens on the Olympic program had a dramatic impact on the development of the global game, particularly for women. I can’t believe that we were nine months down the track from October when I first took over the girls, and to be on the eve of the Olympics – less than a week and we will be well into the thick of it and it’s an wonderful prospect that we are where we are. “And the reason why we’re all sitting up here and we’re professional athletes and staff and is that the game is an Olympic sport now”, Horan said, explaining the emphasis on Rio rather than the world series.
“The Olympics are a whole new thing for us and we’re still kind of getting used to that”, Canada back Bianca Farella said. But the New Zealanders survived unscathed with a player short until Nathan-Wong returned with 22 seconds remaining.
At least they’ll know the equation before the match, as theirs is the last group game. In other big matches before then, Canada and Britain – both unbeaten – will meet to determine the top spot in Pool C and New Zealand will play France in Pool B. In the seven years since, global participation has doubled to 7.73 million, and the percentage of female players has risen from 10 percent to more than 30, according to World Rugby. On Saturday, she’ll be an Olympian.
They realised that they needed to get themselves to a better place but it had taken time.
AIMING HIGH: The Canadian women won the last stop in the world series, beating top-ranked Australia in the final, and placing third overall. In any tournament the quarterfinal’s always the big one, but now we’re playing for a medal. Welsh winger Jasmine Joyce earned selection, ensuring it wasn’t a full English dozen.
Emily Scarratt, who helped England win the 2014 World Cup in the 15-a-side format, said her squad is in Rio “with ambitions”.
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We talked about level three being the area we want to work at and you know that’s where the girls have been for the past two days. “We’ve been through high pressure situations and through the long campaigns in terms of still peaking at the end”.
