Kolinisau rounded off a superb length-of-the-pitch move to get the scoreboard ticking for the double defending Sevens Series champions.
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The Japanese followed it up with a 21-19 loss to Britain, missing a late kick to draw that match, and an impressive 31-7 victory over Kenya to set up a playoff against France – just one win away from the medal round.
South Africa lost 12-5 to Australia in their final pool match on Wednesday, and they will have a chance to put that right later on. The two will meet again in the quarters.
“If they had a clear calendar around the Olympics and there wasn’t any test rugby I think you’d see a lot of more people want to go but at the same time it just emphasises the players’ thoughts about how they feel about the jersey and their franchises”.
Fiji scored first but New Zealand led 7-5 at half-time on the back of a Gillies Kaka try, despite playing with six men for the latter stages of the first half after Rieko Ioane was sinbinned for a risky tackle.
The match fluctuated back and forth until National Football League special teams player Nate Ebner rampaged down the touchline for a 40-metre try in the final minute, which give Madison Hughes the chance to add the extra points and keep the United States alive. “If we lose, we lose, if we win, we win, ‘ Lemeki said”.
The New Zealanders were hoping to have Williams back around the team in some way during the Olympics. “We went to Rio as gold contenders, but problems began from the team’s selection”, a disappointed Otieno, who handled the Kenya Sevens team at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games.
Britain’s James Davies, brother of Wales and Lions centre Jonathan, called his side’s first-half performance “a cracker”.
“It’s pretty insane, we’ve been told we’ve got to turn our phones off between games”, he said.
“We’ve got one aim, and that’s to win a gold medal”.
New Zealand responded through Gillies Kaka, who gathered his own chip to touch down for a try he also converted for a 7-5 half-time lead. “Luckily, we hung on in the end”.
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“I don’t know! Personally, I thought we’d be lucky to make the quarters, let alone the semi”. Their victories in the world series this year have been built on their size and physicality, and starring roles from Akira and Rieko Ioane, but the brothers struggled to find their feet in Rio and it appeared other nations had done their homework on Sir Gordon Tietjens’ team.
