Winners of the last Olympic gold medal awarded in 15-man rugby at the 1924 Paris Games, the United States needed only to avoid defeat by a margin of five points or more to reach the quarter-finals and send sevens powerhouse New Zealand home.
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New Zealand responded through Gillies Kaka, who gathered his own chip to touch down for a try he also converted for a 7-5 half-time lead.
New Zealand Rugby union chief executive Steve Tew said: “He has a partial rupture of his Achilles tendon, which means he will be out of rugby for six to nine months”.
Williams, twice a World Cup victor in the 15-man game, sustained the injury charging into a tackle but immediately indicated to the bench that he needed help.
“First time Japan has ever beaten our side, but that’s sevens rugby now”, New Zealand coach Gordon Tiejens said.
Fiji have never won an Olympic medal of any colour, but coach Ryan says they will not settle for anything less than gold.
The British team beat Kenya 31-7 before edging Japan 21-19 to top Pool C.
New Zealand, which had two tries from the outstanding Kayla McAlister and one at the death from Portia Woodman, performed a tearful haka in front of the crowd at the end of the match, its dreams of gold shattered.
The rollercoaster of sevens goes up and goes down, and so hopefully we can rest up nicely ahead of tomorrow.
However, after making it beyond halfway, they were pinged for holding on in the tackle and tensions flared before the final whistle allowed Fiji celebrate a place in the final four. “If we lose, we lose, if we win, we win, ‘ Lemeki said”. “How Japan finished at the World Cup really lifted rugby in Japan”.
“They’re a good team”.
Newcastle Falcons’ flyer Marcus Watson insists Great Britain’s meticulous Olympic preparations paid dividends in their rugby sevens openers, as they earned pool wins against Kenya and Japan in Rio. Tietjens said that both Williams and Webber worked very hard to prepare themselves for the Rio Olympics, but that he would have to manage the team without them at their full potential.
The New Zealanders were hoping to have Williams back around the team in some way during the Olympics.
“He’s a great professional”.
But the day unquestionably belonged to Japan, whose star player Lemeki said of their New Zealand scalp: ” It is unbelievable. It certainly helped Lemeki settle in with fellow Team Japan athletes.
“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”.
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“They’re the world champs for a reason”, said crestfallen American Danny Barrett.
