Rugby’s sevens debut at Rio has already sparked wide interest. Japan shocked the world beating the All Blacks sevens 14 – 12. Japan also created history in the rugby world cup beating the Springboks 34 – 32 and has proved to the world that they are now in fact giant killers in both formats of this oval ball game.
Japan in their second game came close to beating Great Britain (GBR) but one missed conversion had them in the losing team as GBR won 21 – 19.
After day one above is the points table Favourites Fiji, South Africa and GBR looks automatic qualification for the quarter-finals, although one more game remains in the pool stages. The team that finishes second in pool will also will get promoted in to the quarters while the remaining two spots will be on two best finishes in the 3rd place of the pools.
Brazil, Spain and Kenya are out of medal reach and they will be playing in the 9th – 12th place competition alongside one another top nation. If Fiji beat USA, South Africa beat Australia, GBR beat New Zealand means that team who scored the least number of points will be out of the medal competition and will play in the 9th & 12th place spot.
Below is the knock-out stage format for Gold, Silver and Bronze medal
Shamrath Fernando, who is with the Olynpic sevens technical committee speaking to Thepapare.com from Rio said “ Japan’s win was incredibly unbelievable and great to see numbers coming in to cheer, home team and the underdogs got more cheer here at the Deodora Stadium” Everyone is not looking at who will win the gold but who will misses out the top 8 spot and missing out a complete chance of a medal.”
Today fixtures below in Sri Lanka time
