Years of meticulous planning and traversing the globe winning back-to-back rugby sevens world series titles had coach Ben Ryan prepared for just about anything when he revealed his Fiji squad for the Olympics. We’ve seen that with Colombia and I have been to Mexico and many countries in Latin America and Asia who can see they have an opportunity.
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Pichot knows the political dynamics of rugby in this part of the world better than any and he has been instrumental in ensuring Brazil was ready for rugby in the Olympics and ensuring a sustainable plan is in place for after the Games.
And the people have high expectations. As a young athlete at school, I dreamt of running at the Olympics and now I have the chance as a rugby player, which is awesome.
Green is set to become one of the more popular members of Australia’s Rio contingent in the Games village, and not just because of her friendly personality.
She had driven her cousin to an Australian Rugby Union talent identification camp in Melbourne in 2012, only to take part herself before a year later making her national sevens debut in Houston on the world series circuit.
Williams said he wanted to watch his sister play in the women’s sevens tournament and support other New Zealand athletes, in particular Valerie Adams who is aiming for a third consecutive gold medal. The result is a still entertaining, but more consistent Fiji team.
World Rugby’s IMPACT Beyond Rio programme, which was instigated in March 2015, has already reached 175,000 players, coaches and young match officials.
Meanwhile, World Rugby is encouraging fans to get involved, celebrate rugby’s inclusion and join the conversation on social media using the #Rugby and #RoadToRio hashtags, while tickets are still available to see the sevens stars in action via the Rio 2016 website. The following month in Hong Kong, the Fijians won again to all but secure the world championship.
Chloe Dalton lined up the dropkick and calmly slotted the ball through the posts to save a 12-12 draw and the blushes of the world series champions, who face Spain in the last eight. “In 15s, there is a lot going on, so someone can make five mistakes within three minutes and there can be no try”.
“That team behaved like a rugby team, they all had different specialists”.
World series victor Australia rebounded from a surprising 12-12 draw with the United States in the last game of the pool stage to trounce Spain 24-0 and set up a semifinal match against Canada, which rallied to beat France 15-5 in the quarterfinals. As well, there’s France-based Josua “the Fijian Bus” Tuisova in a versatility role and forwards such as Leone Nakarawa to provide possession.
While the London 2012 men’s football squad controversially omitted Scottish players, Amor’s Rio team will feature all three nations. That makes them a good shot at a medal. “They want the gold medal back at home”.
Canada opens the Olympic sevens rugby tournament against Japan on Saturday. “The fitness levels are up where they should be and the knowledge of the game as well”.
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“We keep building each game, and I think that is all you can ask in sevens”.
