But his team’s run is further boosting rugby in his adopted country, which was already on cloud nine after their 15-man team’s famous win against South Africa in last year’s Rugby World Cup.
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“I thought we’d be lucky to make the quarters let alone the semis”, said playmaker Lomano Lemeki.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have invited them to our training camp”, said Australian captain Ed Jenkins, who bemoaned they could have met the Japanese in the quarters if not for leaking a post-siren try in the 31-14 pool loss to France. “Getting to the Olympics in itself is an achievement but to knock out New Zealand along the way is pretty special. So I don’t know what’s happened here”, he added. “Now they know who we are and talk to us”, he remarked. “A lot of boys are not playing sevens after this tournament, so just having fun with your mates, I guess”. “I’m probably one of the most hated ones at the moment”.
The All Blacks Sevens only recorded one win against Kenya, while they picked up losses against Japan, Great Britain and Fiji. He said they deal with pressure daily, more than any rugby sevens player in any part of the world. Damien Cler put the French ahead, but tries just either side of half-time from Teruya Goto and Lote Tuqiri (cousin of the former Australian winger of the same name) ensured Japan would reach the last four.
Even that finish was nothing compared to the drama that played out in the third quarter-final, which was only decided when Britain’s Dan Bibby crashed through the Argentine defence four minutes into golden point extra time.
“It’s pretty insane. We’ve been told we’ve got to turn our phones off between games”, he said.
Fiji and New Zealand had been hoping to play off for the gold medal in rugby’s return to the Olympics.
“Sometimes it’s unsafe to set out outcome goals as a coach”.
Speaking from Rio, Team Fiji Chef De Mission, Cathy Wong says the whole of the Oceania contingent at the games is behind the Fiji 7s team.
Fiji opened the scoring with a Kolinisau try but missed the conversion and when Gillies Kaka scored a converted try, New Zealand led at the interval.
Following on from what was a bitterly disappointing Rio Olympics sevens campaign, where a silver medal was all that was mustered from what would have been considerable aspirations, the autopsy by the media and public opinion of such a uncharacteristic poor showing has begun in earnest.
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“We’re in the papers on the front and back pages – every night we’re in the 6 o’clock news”, he said. We don’t suddenly have to face pressures we’re not used to.
