New Zealand and Fiji qualify for gold medal match at Tokyo Olympics
Fiji will have to beat New Zealand if they are to defend their Olympic gold medal after both teams qualified for the Tokyo Olympics sevens final on Wednesday.
The two sides will play in the tournament’s gold medal match after dispatching Great Britain and Argentina, both of whom will compete for the bronze medal, in the semi-finals.
First up was New Zealand, who opened the semi-finals with a clinical tactical display to comprehensively defeat Great Britain 29-7.
The All Blacks Sevens looked composed, disciplined and accurate in the opening passage of play as they held onto the ball for the first 2 minutes and 15 seconds as they patiently built their way up the park from the kick-off.
The Kiwis were rewarded when captain Scott Curry strolled over from close range, but Great Britain hit back almost immediately when veteran speedster Dan Norton breached the New Zealand defence to score from well inside his own half.
A couple of infringements by Great Britain undid all the pressure they applied on New Zealand in the wake of Norton’s try, though, as Andrew Knewstubb booted the Kiwis into British territory as half-time loomed on the horizon.
Some more patient build-up play worked well for the All Blacks Sevens was followed by Sione Molia taking on the defence with two hands on the ball, which sucked in two British defenders on the right-hand flank.
That allowed Molia to free up Regan Ware on the wing, and the Waikato man had enough pace to score after the half-time siren sounded, although he was dangerously close to coming into contact with the dead ball line in his dive.
The try stood, though, so New Zealand took a seven-point advantage into the break.
A messy kick-off to begin the second half handed the Kiwis a scrum feed on the British 22, but a lack of precision at the breakdown enabled Great Britain to snaffle the ball back and stifle New Zealand’s attack.
The Brits then cleared the ball, but it bounced into touch, which presumably wasn’t what they intended as it gave New Zealand a chance to strike again from a lineout near halfway.
That they did, and, although it looked scrappy at times, the Kiwis managed to fling the ball out wide to Ware, who crashed over in the left-hand corner to score his second.
The quarter-finalists of the men’s sevens tournament at the Tokyo Olympics have been found as pool play has come to an end. #Rugby #Tokyo2020 https://t.co/fpy2ISTfGT
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 27, 2021
Knewstubb’s sideline conversion rattled the uprights, but that counted for little as the Canterbury playmaker put the ball on a dime from the re-start as it landed right into the arms of the charging Dylan Collier, who cantered in over the tryline to extend his side’s lead.
Down 24-7 with only a couple of minutes left to play, Great Britain started to get desperate with ball in hand, but that, and the injection of New Zealand’s reserve players, forced errors and allowed Curry to crash over late in the game to seal the victory.
That sets up a blockbuster gold medal clash against Fiji, who overcame a staunch Argentine outfit to claim a 26-14 semi-final victory.
Fiji, the reigning Olympic champions, looked to apply pressure on the Argentines from the offset, but the South Americans matched the intensity of Fiji’s play on defence in the opening minutes of the contest.
However, a defensive misread by Argentina almost enabled Fiji to score after little more than a minute on the clock, but some clutch covering defence kept the Argentines alive.
That wasn’t enough to stop Sireli Maqala from opening the scoring just moments later, though, as he ploughed through and fended off three opposition players to storm over the tryline in the third minute.
That try was indicative of Fiji’s immense power with ball in hand, which played a part in their second try which came through Meli Derenalagi on the back of an Argentine mistake deep in their own half.
In what was their first real attacking chance inside Fijian territory, Argentina cut the lead to just five points when their star man Marcos Moneta pierced Fiji’s defensive line to sear in under the posts.
A well-claimed re-start gifted Argentina another opportunity to score just as the clock ticked towards half-time, and they did so on the back of some patience but effective build-up play that put Ignacio Mendy over in the left-hand corner.
New Zealand Rugby have announced a new six-year sponsorship deal with INEOS that will see the British petrochemical firm’s logo appear on the kits of their national teams. #AllBlacks https://t.co/LvWQJkibzR
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 28, 2021
Santiago Mare’s sideline conversion gave Argentina an unlikely two-point lead at the break, and that buffer threatened to grow when the Argentines strongly challenged the Fijian defence early in the second half.
Fiji withstood Argentina’s pressure, though, and hit them with a blistering counter-attack that was capped off by Jiuta Wainiqolo to give his side the lead back.
The injection of Semi Radradra helped Fiji extend their lead as the XVs star shoved a defender away with his first touch of the ball to open some space which he exploited superbly to score under the posts.
That gave Fiji a 12-point lead with a minute-and-a-half to play, which proved to be enough for the Pacific Island nation as Argentina blew their final attacking chance to salvage the game with a knock on in the dying stages.
A kick to touch on the full-time siren following the ensuing scrum feed cemented Fiji’s place in the Olympic final as they take one step closer to claiming back-to-back gold medals.
The Olympic final between Fiji and New Zealand is scheduled to kick-off at 6pm local time, while the bronze medal match will get underway half an hour beforehand.
Meanwhile, in the lower-ranking play-offs, a Carlin Isles try on the stroke of full-time ensured the United States a last-gasp 21-14 victory over their North American neighbours Canada to put them in the fifth place play-off match.
There they will face South Africa, who survived a second half comeback by Australia to bounce back from their surprise quarter-final loss to Argentina to win 22-19.
In the bottom half of the draw, South Korea put up a good fight against Japan but eventually went down 31-19 in the 11th place play-off, while Kenya finished in ninth place after whitewashing Ireland 22-0 to avenge for their Group C defeat.
Semi-Finals:
New Zealand 29 (Tries to Scott Curry (2), Regan Ware (2), Dylan Collier; 2 conversions to Andrew Knewstubb)
Great Britain 7 (Try to Dan Norton; conversion Dan Bibby)
Fiji 26 (Tries to Sireli Maqala, Meli Derenalagi, Jiuta Wainiqolo, Semi Radradra; conversion to Napolioni Bolaca, Jerry Tuwai, Vilimoni Botitu)
Argentina 14 (Tries to Marcos Moneta, Ignacio Moneta; 2 conversions to Santiago Mare)
5th-8th Place Semi-Finals:
USA 21 (Tries to Carlin Isles (2), Martin Iosefo; 3 conversions to Madison Hughes)
Canada 14 (Tries to Harry Jones, Justin Douglas; 2 conversions to Nathan Hirayama)
South Africa 22 (Tries to Siviwe Soyizwapi, Ronald Brown (2), JC Pretorius; conversion to Justin Geduld)
Australia 19 (Tries to Lachie Miller, Josh Turner, Maurice Longbottom; conversion to Miller, conversion to Longbottom)
9th Place Match:
Kenya 22 (Tries to Johnstone Olindi, Jacob Ojee, Willy Ambaka, Daniel Taabu; conversion to Ojee)
Ireland 0
11th Place Match:
Japan 31 (Tries to Lote Tuqiri, Masakatsu Hikosaka, Ryoto Kano, Chihito Matsui, Kazushi Hano; 3 conversion to Kano)
South Korea 19 (Tries to Andre Jin Coquillard, Jeongmin Jang, Yeon Sik Jeong; 2 conversions to Coquillard)
Comments on RugbyPass
Results probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
1 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
1 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to commentsBold headline considering the Canes and Blues are 1 and 2 and the Brumbies were soundly beaten by the Chiefs and Blues. Biggest surprise is Rebels 4 Crusaders 12 - no one saw that coming. If Aus are improving that’s great 👍
1 Go to commentsAnna, You are right, we need to have patience whilst the others catch up to England and France. Also it is the PWR that has been the game changer for England. the RFU put money into that initially at the expense of the Red Roses. I was sceptical at first but it has paid off in spades.
1 Go to commentsI think Matt Proctor became a 1 test AB in the same fixture. Cameron is quality and has been great this season, can’t believe’s he only 27. Realistically how would he not be selected for ABs squad this year. Only Dmac is ahead of him as a specialist 10. With Jordan out, it will come down to where and when Beauden Barrett slots back in, and where they want to play Ruben Love. Cameron seems an absolute lock in for the wider squad though. Added benefit of TJ-Cameron-Jordie combination at 9, 10, 11 too.
1 Go to commentsFarcical, to what end would someone want to pay to keep this thing going.
1 Go to commentsHavili, our best 12 by a mile, will be in the squad, if he stays fit. JB is the most overrated AB in the last 50 years.
61 Go to commentsWe had during the week twilight footy, twilight cricket, tw golf plus there was the athletics club. Then the weekend was rugby 15s plus the net ball, really busy club scene back then but so much has changed and rugby has suffered. And it was all about changing lifestyles.
6 Go to commentsIn the 70s and 80s my club ran 5 Senior sides plus a Vets. Now it is 2 sides with an occasional 3rd team. Players have difficulty getting to training now, not sure why and the commitment is not there. It seems to me more a problem of people applying themselves and not expecting to turn up and play whenever they want to.
6 Go to commentsROG’s contract is until 2027. The conversation about a successor to Galthie after RWC 2027 may be starting now. We can infer that Galthie’s reign stops then. He is throwing the Irish Coaching Job angle in because he is Irish. The next Irish coach MUST be Leo Cullen. As well as being the best coach available, coaching the vast majority of Irish Internationals week in week out, he has shown incredible skill at recruiting the best coaching staff for the job in hand. That was a failing in France. Cullen is a shrewd guy and if there is a need for foreign coaches underneath him he won’t hesitate. Rightly so. Ireland does need to start to bring Irish coaches through. Not just at the professional level but we need to train coaches to man new pathways for developing kids from schools/clubs up through the divisions.
8 Go to commentsNo Islam says it must rule where it stands Thus it is to be deleted from this planet Earth
18 Go to commentsThis team probably does not beat the ABs sadly Not sure if BPA will be available given his signing for Force but has to enter consideration. Very strong possibility of getting schooled by the AB props. Advantage AB. Rodda/Skelton would be a tasty locking combination - would love to see how they get on. Advantage Wallabies. Backrow a risk of getting out hustled and outmuscled by ABs. Will be interesting to see if the Blues feast on the Reds this weekend the way they did the Brumbies we are in big trouble at the breakdown. Great energy, running and defence but goalkicking/general kicking/passing quality in the halves bothers me enormously. SA may have won the World Cup for a lot of the tournament without a recognised goalkicker but Pollard in the final made a difference IMO. Injuries and retirements leave AB stocks a bit lighter but still stronger. 12 and 13 ABs shade it (Barret > Paisami, Ione = Ikitau, arguably) Interesting clash of styles on the wings - Corey Toole running around Caleb Clark and Caleb running over the top of Toole. Reece vs Koro probably the reverse. Pretty even IMO. 15s Kelleway = Love See advantage to ABs man for man, but we are not obviously getting slaughtered anywhere which makes a nice change. Think talent wise we are pretty even and if our cohesion and teamwork is better than the ABs then its just about doable.
11 Go to commentsCompletely agree. More friday night games would be a hit. RFU to make sure every club has a floodlit pitch. Club opens again Saturday to welcome touch / tag. Minis and youths on Sunday
6 Go to comments1.97m and 105Kg? Proportionately, probably skinnier than me at 1.82 and 82kilos. He won’t survive against the big guys at that weight.
56 Go to commentsThe value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
8 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
11 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
61 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to comments