CSU rugby star Ben Pinkelman earned two starts for Team USA on the opening day of the Olympic men’s rugby sevens tournament Tuesday.
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Lemeki compared the win in Rio with Japan’s big victory at the 15s World Cup in England past year.
Japan’s Teruya Goto, back, is tackled by New Zealand’s Regan Ware.
Relegated to the sidelines as a spectator for the rest of the Rio Games, Williams suffered a devastating partial Achilles rupture on Wednesday (NZ time).
“Looking back on it now, it’s definitely a highlight of my life, getting that back for Australia, and now to do this too is unbelievable”.
Japan caused arguably the greatest upset in rugby sevens history by claiming a stunning 14-12 win against New Zealand at Deodoro Stadium.
“We have such different talent on our team, and we have brought them together, and I think it’s about having those different balances of athletic background”, Hughes said.
“Obviously there’s some particular problems in Rio, with the country economically struggling, but once the competitions start people get focussed on it and it is pretty damn good”.
Ioane crossed for New Zealand’s second but Kameli Soejima scrambled over to draw the scores level, Katsuyuki Sakai’s conversion pulling the Japanese two points clear for a famous win.
Numerous women moved away from their family to chase their Olympic dreams and their 24-17 Olympic final win justified those sacrifices, Parry said.
Rugby in Japan has been nearly entirely dominated by teams owned by big corporate teams which important talent from overseas.
“Japan played extremely well”.
“It’s sevens, it’s anyone’s games!”
Seeing Williams, a two-time World Cup victor with the All Blacks, being helped off with his injury in the second-half was a “boost”, the Japanese players admitted.
“Sonny Bill’s a good player, no doubt”.
“They got a little bit of confidence out there today, it was a physical game and I thought we won the forward battle”, he added.
“Because they were touch players and wear ribbons and pig tails and sing songs doesn’t mean they are not world class rugby players and ruthless in defence and I think they showed that to everybody”.
There were far fewer dramas earlier in the day as Kenya were despatched 31-7 – Dan Bibby (2), Mark Bennett, Dan Norton and Phil Burgess scored tries – but the stadium then rocked as New Zealand were stunned by Japan.
And Brazil notched up a 33-5 victory over Japan to ensure themselves a core team place on next season s Sevens Series circuit. Until the women on these Rio Olympic playing fields are matched by women in the coaching box, the gates to true sporting equality remain shut.
Argentina scored after the siren to edge the United States 17-14 in another tight tussle between closely-ranked teams in the earlier Pool A match.
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Fiji, the favorite for the men’s gold medal, had to wait until the last game of the first round to make its Olympic debut, and conceded the first try to host Brazil before taking control in the second half for a 40-12 win.
