Although their competition ended with a crushing 43-7 defeat in the final against rampant Fiji, Britain still made a mark by beating sevens powerhouses like New Zealand and South Africa during their six-match campaign.
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Overall, it’s fair to say rugby sevens has been a huge success on its Olympic debut, bringing a new audience to the sport and hopefully inspiring people around the world to pick up an oval ball.
He said representing Great Britain in Rio 2016 was a childhood dream come true.
The team was voted for by members of the public on World Rugby Sevens’ website.
“Some people may go to work now but I don’t think they will be very productive”.
Three years on and Ryan will return to Fiji as a national hero after his team won the country’s first ever Olympic medal with a victory in Rio that had strangers to the game of sevens all over the world nearly as blown away as Great Britain’s players were in the final.
“But I came to Fiji and I just got back to basics again”.
Social media was awash with expressions of joy and congratulations and for a time Fiji was the No. 1-trending search on Google.
There’s not many islanders in there, but (other athletes) have heard about the Fiji rugby sevens team. “We have won our first gold medal at a summer Olympic Games and every Fijian is rejoicing at home and around the world”.
“I was one of them and I thank the IRB and rugby is played in the Olympics and it opened the door for Fiji to get a medal.I’m so proud of them”, he said.
He says some players have chosen to go and some have chosen to stay, and that is an option they have decided to make without the influence of Tietjens or him.
World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont said Japan’s upset win over powerhouse New Zealand on the opening day of the men’s tournament “was awesome”, and noted the performances of the Brazilian teams.
“They just attacked everything, they went for everything and it all paid off”, said Britain’s James Rodwell.
The US women produced two big performances, leading eventual gold medallists Australia 12-5 with a minute to play before the Aussies rallied, and taking New Zealand all the way in a 5-0 quarterfinal loss.
Today in the Pacific, we are all Fijians.
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“For years, we’ve been trying to get back the Fijian flair, and what Ben did is bring that out, and a lot of consistency that was lacking in our game”.
