Fiji favourites but anything can happen
Jon Newcombe looks ahead to the men’s rugby Sevens competition at the Olympic Games which gets underway in Tokyo on Monday, July 26-28
WALES winning the men’s Sevens Rugby World Cup in 2009 as 80/1 outsiders was proof if any were needed that anything can happen in a global Sevens tournament.
That element of unpredictability and excitement was one of the main reasons why the IOC voted in Sevens as an Olympic sport in the first place in Lausanne in 2009.
Debuting in Rio in 2016, Sevens wasted no time in converting a largely non-plussed Brazilian audience and quickly became one of the hottest tickets in town with its fastpaced action and athleticism.
And it wasn’t long before the newly-converted fans had a shock result to talk about, too.
All things considered, Japan’s pool victory over a New Zealand side featuring Sonny Bill Williams was every bit as impressive as the Brave Blossoms’ ‘Brighton Miracle’ against South Africa at Rugby World Cup 2015.
With home advantage, albeit without crowds inside the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, the hosts will hope to kick on like their 15s brethren did and turn their fourth place finish in Rio into a medal.
However, Fiji are the standout favourites to retain their men’s title, followed by New Zealand and then South Africa – teams that have monopolised the World Series title.
Former Hong Kong coach Gareth Baber is in charge of Fiji and has been left in no doubt what the 2016 Olympics win meant to the Island nation.
“It’s been mentioned to me every day for the last five years. So, you get some sort of indication of exactly what is expected of you from the country,” he said.
Although Fiji have played only one competitive international tournament in the last 17 months due to Covid-19 restrictions, recent results suggest that Baber and Fiji will be confident of getting that job done again in Tokyo.
Last month, the Olympic champions competed against Australia, New Zealand and an Oceania representative side at the Oceania Sevens in Townsville, and won six out of six matches.
New Zealand will be hellbent on putting on a better showing in Tokyo than they did in Rio when finishing fifth – akin to the All Blacks failing to make it beyond the quarter-finals in the Rugby World Cup in 15s. But they will be missing one of their most experienced campaigners after Sam Dickson was ruled out of the tournament with a hamstring injury.
As for third favourites South Africa, the Blitzbokke will be without long-serving head coach Neil Powell for the tournament after he tested positive for Covid. However, it would be difficult to find any team out of the 12-strong line-up that has not been adversely affected by the pandemic one way or the other.
The limiting effects of Covid on preparation time adds another layer of unpredictability into the mix as it could potentially level up the playing field. With no World Series taking place this year, form guides have been thrown out of the window
For Great Britain just getting to Tokyo has been a triumph in itself given that Union-backed funding had been pulled from the Sevens programmes of England and Wales. In December 2020, the National Lottery Foundation stepped in and came to the rescue.
Now thanks to their support, Great Britain have the opportunity to go one better than Rio, when they lost 43-7 to Fiji in the final, and turn silver into gold.
Wasps winger Marcus Watson came off the bench to play the whole of the second half that day. And while disappointed with the outcome, Watson acknowledges it would have taken a super-human effort to have stopped the rampant Fijians.
“It almost made it slightly easier to deal with that it wasn’t such a close game, that it wasn’t one mistake or a call that changed the game that you always look back on,” Watson said.
“We were convincingly beaten by a team that was pretty much in control throughout that whole tournament, and sometimes when you play Fiji and the ball bounces straight into their hands every time when it is 50:50, you know it’s not going your way.”
On-going injury issues meant Wasps flyer Watson was never in contention to push for a place in the Team GB squad for Tokyo.
But looking from afar, the 2016 Olympian believes the team has every chance to do well in what will be an Olympics like no other.
“I don’t see why not. It is such a strange year by the fact that no teams have played at all for a long time,” said Watson, older brother of England and Lions wing, Anthony.
“We went into that tournament last time and we turned what I think some people saw as a negative – the fact that we hadn’t played together in a tournament – into a positive in the sense that people couldn’t review any of the stuff we’d done and that we were a stronger squad combined rather than one nation on its own.”
The style of play under Tony Roques is yet to be seen other than in a few warm-up tournaments, but Watson expects the emphasis to be on a fast-placed game that will suit the likes of record try-scorer Dan Norton.
“It’s not the biggest team but it is pretty agile and I would be surprised if they don’t play fast-tempo Sevens. I think the team is going to be very fit. Dan Howells, the S&C coach, is one of the best and he’ll have got the boys in good shape, there is no doubt about that.
“Rocky as a coach is also one of the best Sevens coaches around so they will be prepared going into it.”
A win for Ireland would be one for the romantics, especially with former Love Island winner Greg O’Shea in their squad.
Anthony Eddy’s side had to win the repechage in Monaco in June to make it to Tokyo and came through with flying colours in the final against France.
The Irish know how to party and the celebrations would rival those back in Fiji, when they won gold under Ben Ryan five years ago, if they were pull off a result every bit as big as that Wales one back in 2009.