Jasa Veremalua of Fiji celebrates after the men’s rugby sevens gold medal match between Fiji and Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Olympic.
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That despite admitting the islanders had helped restore his “fire” – on a personal and professional level – after his spell as England’s longest serving sevens coach from 2007 to 2013 left him disillusioned with the power brokers at the Rugby Football Union and questioning his future in the game.
“I never dreamed of being an Olympian, let alone being a medalist, let alone being a gold medalist”, the team’s captain Osea Kolinisau said in a press conference.
“We’re not the biggest or the fastest team but we work hard for one another and we managed to get fourth”.
“We really had a successful season when we came back”.
“I don’t know that we have performed above expectations actually – we knew how much talent there was in the group and i think we thoroughly deserved to get the silver medal”, he added.
“It was just the way we wanted to play the game”. “I’m feeling so happy”.
Britain’s normally watertight defence leaked holes everywhere, and Fiji nearly added a third try in five minutes, but Leone Nakarawa was hauled down just short of the line.
Ryan has trained the team for the last three years and is credited with injecting discipline into Fiji’s outrageously talented players.
“I just can’t believe it – it’s a dream come true and these boys are an absolutely incredible bunch of rugby players, bunch of men and they’re heroes for their country now”, he said.
The victory sent the small country of Fiji, with a population of less than 900,000 people, into celebration mode.
Josua Tuisova added another try shortly after half-time, and although Dan Norton claimed a consolation score for Britain, Fiji inevitably had the final word when Viliame Mata crossed the whitewash. Tense at first as they saw the nation poised on the brink of an historic achievement, fans relaxed as Fiji ran away to an emphatic 43-7 victory on Thursday evening in Rio de Janeiro.
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Discovering an unfit team with a poor diet, he made the players buy into his rules by threatening not to select people who couldn’t follow them. I just got a bit disillusioned and flat with a few things that were going on at the RFU. “My hats off to my fellow countrymen that played, they played an unbelievable match”, says Katobalavu.
