“People should have high expectations of us, because we have high expectations of ourselves”.
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Fiji has never won an Olympic medal, but it has never had a chance to play its national sport at the Summer Games.
The other two sides in the group are expected to progress in the top two positions, yet after each finishing on 74 points this season it could be tough to separate them.
“Charlie will meet us in Rio and was unfortunate to miss out on the original selection”.
And they’re not just any rugby team anymore.
Coach Sean Horan freely admits that his team, which features prolific try scorer Portia Woodman, treated the 2015-16 world series as an “interview” for the Olympics and New Zealand will duly be expected to top Pool B.
Despite the burgeoning global participation, the first Olympic rugby gold medal since the men played the last of the 15-a-side tournaments in 1924 is likely to go to one of the sport’s traditional powers, with New Zealand and world series victor Australia favored to reach the final.
It has also been reported that a representative of the New Zealand team asked a News Corp photographer to leave a private training session at the IMG Academy in Florida, where the Kiwis had been holding a training camp alongside the Australian athletics team, and refused a request for an interview with Williams.
It wasn’t until 2009 that it was decided that Rugby Sevens would make its debut at the 2016 Rio Olympics, 92 years after the 15-man format was last played.
With numbers reportedly dwindling in Super Rugby this year in terms of television figures and stadium attendance, Sevens rugby is seen by many as a way of ensuring the growth of the sport in the future in much the same way that T20 cricket is viewed in relation to Test cricket. The following month in Hong Kong, the Fijians won again to all but secure the world championship.
“It’s no secret that we’re podium contenders, and that’s just based off our history in the past four years, we’ve build a winning case”, she said.
“We took some great (lessons). and grown”.
Ellia Green has established herself as one of the best player’s on the Sevens circuit, and her 17 tries this season were a big part in Australia’s success under head coach Tim Walsh.
“I had a lot of posters of Olympian sprinters like Carmelita Jeter, Usain Bolt up in my room so it was something that I was going to hopefully one day achieve”. That makes them a good shot at a medal.
To that end, they have enjoyed working with a significant but unexpected fan, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes. Fijiana – the country’s women’s team – starts its competition Saturday, while the men begin their campaign Tuesday.
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“We have a great responsibility with the region, before the Olympic Games and afterwards”, Pichot said. “We keep the ball alive, we do have audacious off-loads, they play with a smile on their face”.
