Get ready to rumble: rugby returns to Olympics in Rio

However, New Zealand coach Sean Horan has re-iterated time and again that the World Series wasn’t his team’s priorities for the 2015-16 season and for this reason Tim Walsh, Horan’s contemporary, believes the “Sevens Sisters” from across the ditch go in as competition front-runners.

Gavin Lowe was one of the Scottish players at the training camp who missed out on a place in the squad.

To make things better for the Williams family, Sonny Bill will be accompanied to Rio by his sister Niall, 28, who was a New Zealand touch rugby player for several years before switching to sevens last year.

And the people have high expectations.

Meanwhile 44-year-old Ben Ryan has the potential to become a history maker and guide Fiji to our first Olympic medal, although he is under no illusions anything less than gold will be deemed a failure. They’ve never had a chance until now, though, to contest their national sport at the Summer Games.

Ryan says 7s fever is at an all time high and pressure is really building with the fans expecting the win in Rio. “Hundreds have lined the training pitch to watch us”. “There is huge growth on the back of their success in rugby”.

Should men pay into women’s KiwiSaver accounts? .

The New Zealand men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams will be contenders for medals at the Rio Olympics, but they do not hold the favouritism they once had.

As the Fiji 7s men’s team arrived in Rio today, sports channel ESPN has rated Fiji as the favorites in next week’s Rio Olympics 7s competition and the Fijiana have also been rated as a major threat.

He said legacy – what’s left behind after the games move on – was important to World Rugby, and he was happy with what has been done in Brazil, where rugby is not that popular, ranking below even skateboarding and table tennis. They won three of five series events and were on the podium for the other two netting them the overall title and top seeding for Rio.

Teddy Stanaway has been ruled out of the New Zealand sevens team for Rio, with Lewis Ormond called into the 12, Liam Messam’s been called in to cover.

“If we only concentrate on South Africa or look further ahead that can sort of come back to bite you”. It’s fun, everybody touches the ball and the sky is the limit for what it’s going to mean to us. “Villagers wanting to thank the team for what they’ve done”. And there could well be others that play 15s that might decide to represent their countries on a Sevens World Series circuit. As well, there’s France-based Josua “the Fijian Bus” Tuisova in a versatility role and forwards such as Leone Nakarawa to provide possession.

“We’re coming out here to achieve a medal and hopefully gold”, she said. They don’t want the bronze.

She started off playing Rugby Union, which consists of 15 players on each team.

“We’re confident that we’ve picked the right players for the Championship with some proven combinations and some test experience being balanced out by the need to continue to grow the newer players in our environment”.