Pool A winners Fiji await the All Blacks Sevens in the last eight after they joined Great Britain as the only unbeaten teams with a 24-19 victory over the United States of America at the Deodoro Stadium, a missed conversion attempt from out wide by Madison Hughes the difference between a quarter-final place and ninth place semi-final for his side.
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Men’s Quarter-final – Fiji v New Zealand – Deodoro Stadium – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 10/08/2016.
But the Japanese are growing in confidence, too, after a stunning upset win over New Zealand and narrowly missing a draw against Britain on the opening day of the tournament and following it up on Wednesday with a win over Kenya before a 12-7 quarter-final win over France.
It lost star player Sonny Bill Williams to a ruptured Achilles injury in the shock defeat by Japan and rarely looked like recovering.
“We’ve got one aim, and that’s to win a gold medal”.
Fiji moved into the rugby sevens medal round at the Olympic Games after a 12-7 win over the famous “All Blacks” of New Zealand. “Silver will be a disappointment as will bronze and fourth place”.
“Playing the number one seed, we had chances there to perhaps win it, yeah it’s tough to take but it is what it is and we’ve got to get on with it”.
Fiji skipper Osea Kolinisau finished a brilliant length-of-the-field try to open the game many thought would take place in the final and Jerry Tuwai skipped through the All Blacks defence to add a second for the Pacific islanders. “But we are not looking for an excuse”.
When they do, their parents will have to decide whether to follow through on a pledge made before the Olympics, to celebrate gold with a touch of ink. It’s such a shame because he’s got to understand the game of sevens so well.
And they continued their fine run of form by nipping France 12-7 in their quarter thanks to a last-gasp try from livewire Teruya Goto following a first try from Lote Tuqiri that was cancelled out by Frenchman Damien Clerc.
“I can’t explain it, we just train hard and somehow put it together on the pitch”, said Japan’s New Zealand born Lomano Lemeki.
“I thought we’d come here, win a few games, give it a good go”. We just need a few calls to come our way, maybe a few yellow cards and we could be in for a medal. That’s not the case for any other team in this tournament.
“If they had a clear calendar around the Olympics and there wasn’t any test rugby, I think you’d see a lot of more people want to go.”
“There’s no pressure on us, the pressure’s on the big teams, they are the ones supposed to be winning the medals, not us”. In the end, they had with New Zealand’s points difference of +19 just one better than the USA Sevens Eagles to claim one of the two best third-placed spots behind Australia.
“It’s not “little old Fiji”.
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If that was not enough pressure, their prime minister is watching every game from the stands and like all rugby-mad Fijians, Frank Bainimarama knows the finer points of the game. They all promised each other they would get tattoos if their daughters won gold.
