Japan upset the odds with a thrilling upset over New Zealand in their opening match of the Olympic rugby sevens Tuesday as All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams sustained a tournament-ending Achilles tendon injury.
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The formbook has been completely thrown out at Deodoro Stadium, highlighted by Australia’s 5-1 record in friendly matches against the Japanese at their training camp at Narrabeen last month.
We’ve got one aim and that’s to win the gold medal, not silver or bronze. It took us a while to win a World Cup [after 1987].
Earlier, the British team had defeated New Zealand 21-19 in a superb performance, with tries from Mark Bennett, James Davies and Dan Norton.
In a tactical match with both sides utilising the offload to the maximum, Jerry Tuwai shimmied his way through to restore Fiji’s lead, Kolinisau converting.
The Springboks had the superior points difference and topped the group, meaning they faced the Australians again in the quarter-finals.
“It’s obviously disappointing but it went right down to the wire. We’re not looking for any excuses, Fiji deservedly beat us”.
Kazakhstan was allowed to compete because those doping cases were not fully processed in time for the games, the International Weightlifting Federation has said.
So it is all to play for in Pool C. Remember the top two in each pool go through to the last eight alongside the two best third place sides from the three groups.
Earlier, the Kiwis were unable to control their own destiny by losing 21-19 to Great Britain and had to rely on Fiji to beat U.S. to make it through as one of two wildcards.
― Reuters picRIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 11 ― Fiji sent New Zealand home, Japan continued their fairytale run to the semi-finals and Britain edged Argentina amid the high drama of extra time as the inaugural Olympic sevens tournament got down to the final four on Wednesday.
“I knew with Kenya and Britain, there was a chance we weren’t even going to look at the quarter-finals, so we’ve got a chance on Wednesday to get in there”.
“They have shown their pedigree for so many years and they came back at us really hard in that second half”.
But Fiji’s English coach, Ben Ryan, said his outfit live with it every day of their lives.
“It’s not “little old Fiji”.
“We need to treat Rio like the (world) series, not let the Olympics get into our heads”.
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“That’s not the same with any other team in this tournament, so they’re used to it”. “We’ve been told to turn them off between games because everyone’s getting carried away”, Lemeki said.
