Following an enthralling Day One of the Olympics Rugby Sevens action, USA Head Coach Mike Friday provides his five talking points from the opening matches.
Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and Fiji shone on Day One of the Olympic Rugby Sevens securing back-to-back victories while hosts France were held to a draw with the USA.
“I want to start by saying I’ve never quite been to an event like this where the stands are packed full for the opening match,” said an awestruck Friday.
“It’s an absolute credit to the organisers who saw the rugby tickets sell faster than almost any other event at this year’s Games.
“The stadium was in full voice – absolutely deafening at times, especially when France played and it’s absolutely key that World Rugby capture this level of enthusiasm and support for the short-form game. One of the unusual things about this format is it’s played all in one stadium, something that’s rare in a Sevens event, so all of the supporters are having a great time socialising, although I’ve heard a few complaints about it being a ‘dry’ event with no alcohol sales permitted in the concourse.
“Whilst there’s always the old rivalries on the pitch and we are well aware of where the battle lines are, off the arena the teams are getting on brilliantly under the stands, sharing time together over food and so on. We sat next to the French boys at dinner after our game against them and the camaraderie was outstanding, and that social piece is a really important part of our tournament- long may it continue!”
“From what I saw yesterday, three teams look head and shoulders above the rest,” The USA boss continued.
“Fiji have come here absolutely cooking and what they did to us was quite remarkable, although a lot of it was down to our own errors. More on that later.
“Ireland are the masters of suffocation and control. They are brilliant in defence, super physical over the ball and in contact, and they are a team bonded by great structure. Terry Kennedy gives them the cherry on the cake, and you saw just how quick he is when he broke out against the Blitzboks. Zac Ward is also key for them as he cleans up all the breakdown mess and offers continuity of pass and movement. They look a tough side to beat and have a great chance of medals.
“New Zealand are the ultimate fusion of big athletic men and sheer speedsters. In fact, for my money, they are the most complete team on both sides of the ball, massively physical but able to press on the gas with brilliant finishers out wide. That man Moses Leo scored arguably the try of the day in Wednesday’s final match, a 100-metre, multi-pass, coast-to-coast affair as New Zealand beat South Africa 17-5 in a physical encounter and then grabbed another for good measure, a real class act.
“Argentina haven’t shone yet, but they showed us enough in their power to see their threat and I expect them to go through the gears and improve today.”
Four Minutes of Madness
“With my USA bucket hat on, I have to say I’m fuming at the performance against Fiji. After holding France to a draw, we knew we’d beaten Fiji twice in recent times but a combination of our own inaccuracies at the restart, chasing the game before halftime and the brilliance of the hang time at the Fijian kick-off simply blew us out of the water,” he added.
“The hang time Fiji’s Iowana Teba manages to get on his kick-offs is quite remarkable. They’re a tall side, the tallest probably, and what they want is to make the contest a one-on-one rather than a chaser challenging a lifting pod. If you hold your pod back, they’ll kick shorter and slap, so it’s a really hard tactic to defend against. In that first half, we lost control immediately after our first try, and the errors- a knock-on, a botched catch and so on, simply compounded and we were left trying to play catch up.
“In fact, we made a conscious decision to go for broke before half-time to try and claw back but got turned over and they went the length and that was that! I could point out we won the second period 7-5 but by then it was all over I am afraid, really frustrating after we’d held France to a draw in the first match.
France Misfire
“France is under immense pressure in their home tournament and it’s safe to say they spluttered a little yesterday and lacked fluency. We did a great job on them by getting them wide and also controlling the restarts by getting away from Jordan Sepho’s big mitts.
“But the reality is that they’re where they need to be with a win and a draw and will be in the top eight – so the big one today against Fiji is really for table position, and I cannot wait to see the dual between the kick-off of Teba and the aerialism of Sepho- a real game within a game.
“France need to decide their best lineup. Dupont started both yesterday and almost brought the stadium down in his solo try late in the afternoon but Perez is their organiser and I just wonder if they might revert to him starting today – he made the killer play yesterday sacking the halfback right at the end and given his experience goes back to Rio 2016, I would suggest that France may swap him and Dupont in terms of their roles for Day 2.”
“SA versus Japan should prove a key encounter but I can’t see how Japan can keep out the experience of the Blitzboks and Selvyn Davids, although Josua Kerevi has added some real brutality to their defence and breakdown work, and he is key for Japan.
“We, the USA, need to see off Uruguay to get through and I don’t underestimate their challenge. They’re a lesser version of Los Pumas in so far as they’re big, physical and look to dominate the collision, so we need to maintain width and structure and get them narrow to get around them, but I’m confident we’ve got the firepower to do that. Restart management will need to improve for us though.
“Whilst there’s form interest for Argentina v Australia and New Zealand v Ireland, all teams are safely through, so they all have a chance for hit-outs to improve structures and plays, so expect those matches to be fairly open with a lot of team changes.
“Lastly, we have Kenya v Samoa, again a battle for a third place, and I have to back Kenya here; they were very physical without getting the rewards yesterday and stretched Argentina in that first period of play in the second game yesterday. Samoa didn’t disgrace themselves at all, so this one should be a pretty close affair.”
MORE NEWS HERE
