Men’s round-up

JAPAN took their giant-killer tag to the Olympics when they stunned New Zealand in their match of the tournament on Tuesday.

With the 15s side doing the same to South Africa at the World Cup under then coach Eddie Jones, Japan played without fear and took the game to the Kiwis.

Trailing 12-7 after tries from Scott Curry and Akira Ioane, the Japanese launched a desperate attack and it paid off with Kameli Soejima going over. Katsuyuki Sakai, right, converted from the touchline and they held on for a 14-12 win.

They were only undone by a late try from Marcus Watson in their second pool game but they still made it to the quarter-finals.

There they faced France and another last-gasp try, this time from Teruya Goto, snatched a 12-7 win.

But Japan finished fourth after defeats to Fiji in the semi-finals and South Africa in the bronze medal match.

France created the other surprise of the pool stages by beating Australia 31-14, a result which propelled them into medal contention but their last-gasp defeat to Japan ended that journey. They still managed to end on a good note, though, finishing seventh by beating those same Aussies in the play-offs. It was a tournament to forget for New Zealand who not only lost the game against Japan but also their star name in Sonny Bill Williams. The cross-code centre suffered a partially ruptured Achilles tendon and will be out for nine months. They sneaked into the quarter-finals before losing to Fiji and ended up fifth after wins over France and Argentina.