The sight of those big, weeping men soaking up the euphoria of winning their country’s first ever Olympic medal was one of the great emotional moments of the Games, and I felt happy for them and less disappointed for the South Africans.
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Rugby last appeared as the 15-man version of the men’s game at the 1924 Olympics but returned in the shorter sevens format for men and women in Brazil, staging a competition which would decide its future in the Olympic line up.
We can’t say that the result shocked fans of the sport, as Fiji is now the world’s best-ranked team at Rugby-7.
At the offices of the Fiji Olympic Committee immediately after the match, staff began planning for the team’s return and for national victory celebrations.
“First we won the world title and what was missing was the gold medal, that’s what we really wanted to win was the gold medal, to prove it that a small country can win it.
We came here for gold but we’ll take silver”. “And it was great that we delivered that in fairly spectacular fashion”.
The bronze medal match, meanwhile, was won by South Africa, who demolished Japan – shock opening day conquerors of New Zealand – 54-14.
The match was played at 10 a.m. local time and the nation of around 900,000 mostly stopped as fans gathered around television sets.
Fiji has produced some of the greatest players ever to have played the shortened version of the game, such as Waisale Serevi and William Ryder, and their success has allowed the country to wave its flag on the global sporting stage.
Britain’s normally watertight defence leaked holes everywhere, and Fiji nearly added a third try in five minutes, but Leone Nakarawa was hauled down just short of the line.
Ebner scored a last-minute try against Fiji in the group stage that very almost got the Americans into the playoffs, but for a missed conversion in a 24-19 loss.
Beaumont further stated that World Rugby is working on a plan to get Tier One nations travel in the Pacific and play the Pacific Island teams. “They are everything to us”.
“When the boys come in together. heads turn”, he said.
Ebner said the Olympic tournaments had brought the game to a vast new audience in places like America. “Therefore, please be advised that this branch will take a 30-minute break during Fiji’s game … and will reopen after that”. “I think it’s having an impact”.
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The Brit added: “They played some high-risk rugby there and they were outstanding and, hopefully, we showcased Fijian rugby and everybody who was watching, maybe even the British supporters, can have a smile”.
