Japan, which famously upset South Africa at the 15-a-side Rugby World Cup a year ago, produced an equally unexpected performance in the sevens format with the 14-12 victory Tuesday over 12-time world sevens series champion New Zealand.
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No. 2-ranked South Africa had a more conventional run, and overturning an earlier loss to Australia in a 22-5 quarterfinal win to set up a semifinal match against Britain, which needed a try in golden-point extra time from Dan Bibby to edge Argentina 5-0.
Gillies Kaka replied for New Zealand off a chip-and-chase while his team mate Rieko Ioane was in the sin-bin for a high tackle, but Jerry Tuwai skipped through the All Blacks defense to secure a 12-7 victory and set up a meeting with Japan.
New Zealand had earlier slipped to a second defeat of the pool stages against Team GB, going down 21-19 despite scoring 19 unanswered points in the second half, and were left with a nervous wait to see whether they had done enough to keep their medal hopes alive.
The New Zealand star was hurt during his team’s shock 14-12 defeat against Japan on day one of the men’s rugby sevens tournament at Deodoro Stadium.
“We’ve got one aim and that’s to win gold medal, not silver or bronze.
There are no 80 minutes to grind out a comeback and the bounce of a ball can change a game”, – DJ Forbes explaining New Zealand’s shock loss.
Things are expected to get worse for New Zealand with Joe Webber also helped from the field with a suspected dislocated shoulder, although an injury update has not yet been provided.
“We need to treat Rio like the (world) series, not let the Olympics get into our heads”. “So I don’t know what’s happened here!” said Japan’s outstanding New Zealand-born playmaker Lomano Lemeki. “Three strong wins in the pool games is what everyone is after, and we are very happy with that”.
“I think they should have moulded the team around those players who won the Singapore tournament”.
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They will face a Japanese team that itself has already far exceeded expectations by reaching the medal rounds. “We’re in the papers on the front and back pages every night, we’re in the 6 o’clock news every night”, he said. The question is, why did they leave Oyoo and Wanyama behind?
