Japan’s shocking win over New Zealand and a tournament-ending injury to Sonny Bill Williams proved on the first day of Olympic men’s rugby in 92 years what coaches have always been saying about the sevens format.
Advertisement
It has since been revealed that Williams is to miss the entirety of New Zealand’s Rugby Championship campaign, Autumn internationals and a considerable portion of Auckland Blues Super Rugby season as he has been ruled out of action for up to nine-months with a partially ruptured achilles tendon.
France kicked off the tournament with a surprising 31-14 win over error-prone Australia – the morning after a celebratory night for Australians after their women’s team beat New Zealand to win the first rugby sevens gold medal at an Olympics.
Britain led New Zealand 21-0 at half-time and clung on as the All Blacks responded with three second-half tries. “If we lose, we lose, if we win, we win, ‘ Lemeki said”.
“It was unbelievable”, Japan back Lemeki said.
“Both players really worked their butts off to make this tournament and both are influential players with outstanding qualities that I needed”.
One more win will guarantee Fiji a first ever medal at the Olympics, but expectations are high that the island’s rugby heroes will return home with gold draped around their necks.
Lemeki made it 14-7 at the break and Sakai then sent the crowd wild with a try as Japan pulled level, only for Marcus Watson to weave his way over and seemingly give Britain the win.
Team GB will face the Kiwis at 4.30pm before the four quarter-finals start at 9pm with the last of the matches beginning at 10.30pm. The Japanese followed that up with a narrow 21-19 loss to Britain and win on Wednesday over Kenya before a 12-7 quarterfinal win over France.
Fiji defied the wet conditions by opening the match with a magnificent move that took them from under their own posts to the New Zealand line in series of charges and handoffs, captain Osea Kolinisau touching down.
Coach Gordon Tietjens said he was proud of his team’s effort in defeat and said they were “penalised off the park”.
“Sometimes it’s unsafe to set out goals as a coach, but we’re number one in the world, we’re not trying to be arrogant, we’re saying this is what we want”.
“We got our kick-offs nice against Japan, who are a dynamic team, but we need to get our decisions around the breakdown right, which is an area we need to work on ahead of New Zealand”.
“I think the players were just there (Rio) physically but not mentally”.
Advertisement
Everything is going to plan for tournament favourites Fiji, winning its opening Group A games.
