The tournament marked the first time since 1924 that rugby has been played at the Olympics and the debut for sevens, the previous four incarnations featuring men’s 15-a-side tournaments.
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Captain Emily Scarratt offered no excuses after Great Britain’s women saw their rugby sevens medal hopes end with two demoralising defeats on Monday night.
Bibby is the former Fylde and Sale Sharks fly-half.
In the women’s hockey, game between, New Zealand and Germany, it was Germany that proved to be the strongest, taking victory over New Zealand with 2 goals to 1 New Zealand.
Britain’s men finished top of Pool C in the Olympic rugby sevens by beating New Zealand 21-19 to make it three wins from three matches.
The New Zealand team made a few mistakes of its own, and seemed unprepared for the energy of the Japanese side on a hot and muggy Brazilian day.
World series champions Fiji’s clash with New Zealand was an encounter that many thought would take place in the final until the All Blacks were stunned by Japan on Tuesday and beaten again by Britain in their final pool match on Wednesday.
“Playing the number one seed, we had chances there to perhaps win it, yeah it’s tough to take but it is what it is and we’ve got to get on with it”.
“You never see a minnow come here and beat a team which is supposed to be a gold medal contender”.
The win over South Africa at the World Cup previous year set TV ratings records, and caused a surge in interest in the game. “It’s still pretty unbelievable, and I am just shocked”.
Their woes had been compounded with serious injuries to star All Black Sonny Bill Williams and speedster Joe Webber.
“I think exposure like that hopefully inspires some young females to give rugby a try”, Mackenzie said, adding that the win opens up a whole new world of opportunity for young players. “They pushed Britain very closely as well – perhaps that says it all”, he said.
The Blitzboks are in pole position for a quarter-final place after defeating Spain 24-0 and France 26-0. “We started our very well and implemented our game-plan”, said Norton. A lot of that is hard graft and I’m so proud of the way the boys did that.
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The world series champions went behind early in the match, however four unanswered tries from Emma Tonegato, Evania Pelite, Ellia Green and Charlotte Caslick then gave them a lead that New Zealand were unable to overhaul. “We came out here to win a gold medal and we are bringing back a silver”.
