Coach Ben Ryan’s squad are into the semi-finals where they’ll play surprise package Japan overnight tonight.
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“Getting to the Olympics in itself is an achievement but to knock out New Zealand along the way is pretty special”, he said. Obviously it’s one of the more grueling and taxing physical sports in the Games, but playing this much in such a short time is a brutal task for even the best athletes.
There was a silver lining for Australians and New Zealanders after the rugby sevens quarter-finals in Rio – at least the other did not go through.
The 24-year-old, who is the father of three, spoke proudly earlier this week of being part of the first American rugby sevens team to challenge powerhouse nations on the Olympic stage.
When asked about his team’s giant-killing run in Rio, Lemeki didn’t have an insightful answer. “You’re asking me?” he said. “I thought we’d be lucky to make the quarters, let alone the semis”, he said. “So I don’t know what’s happened here”.
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.
“There’s no pressure on us, the pressure’s on the big teams, they are the ones supposed to be winning the medals, not us”.
Rahimov, who only returned from a doping ban previous year, and the rest of Kazakhstan’s team had nearly been excluded from the Rio Olympics entirely after repeated failures in retests of doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Ryan says sometimes it’s unsafe to set out goals as a coach, but Fiji is No 1 in the world, and Ryan says they are not trying to be arrogant – they are saying this is what we want.
Betway are on red alert with pre-tournament 500/1 rank outsiders Japan within touching distance of an Olympic medal in the rugby sevens. “People see it as the All Blacks Sevens so I don’t have a problem with it”. The pressure’s more on the big teams.
Homer’s impressive final touch gave him a thrilling 15-14 victory over Iran’s Mojtaba Abedini in the semifinals and put him within a win of the first gold for the US men in the modern era. 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.
They will not hear from him on the phone.
“It’s pretty insane. We’ve been told we’ve got to turn our phones off between games”, he said.
Live TV coverage of the Olympics men’s rugby sevens matches will begin at 1:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN and will continue through the gold medal match.
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. Sometimes it’s risky to set outcomes as goals as a coach, but we’ve been number one in the world, we’re not being arrogant, but silver would be a disappointment. “When everybody’s at full throttle, Fiji is the best side in the world”.
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“They’re a quality team”. But it’s the opposite. Fiji deservedly beat us.
