Top rugby stories to watch in Rio

“I don’t see one as competition to the other, I see the opposite and that they will actually enhance the game and expand the game”.

“In rugby terms, that’s meant they’re really resilient, they’re robust – and they’re very grateful for what they’ve got”.

World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper revealed that two-thirds of tickets have been sold for the six-day tournament, which was voted onto the Olympic program in 2009 after lobbying by a team including Pichot and former All Black great Jonah Lomu, who died from kidney disease last November at the age of 40.

“And I have her name written on my wrist all the time when I am playing”.

And they’re far from done. “You’re up against the best and you’ve got to be the best to go out and get that gold medal”, Tietjens said.

“We play the way that everybody wants the game to be played”, he said.

“It was just too much travelling, I just couldn’t do it”, she said.

“It is a bit of a bigger stage now but I loved playing for the university side and the friendships I got from that have carried on into adult life”, added Bibby.

“But we’re in medal contention, so (we’re) excited”.

In 2015, he worked the Rugby World Cup and in June of this year, he worked a three-match 15s series between England and Australia in Australia.

Green is set to become one of the more popular members of Australia’s Rio contingent in the Games village, and not just because of her friendly personality.

“(Injuries) put us through a lot of stress through the season”, head coach John Tait said.

“We’re speaking English here (in the news conference), but many nations do not speak English, and what we will see now, from these games, is a lot of countries that are not Anglo-Saxon are going to start looking at rugby as a different option”.

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. “This group has never been fitter or faster than they are right now”.

The 31-year-old is one of the few top players from the 15-man game to have managed the transition to the lung-busting shorter format.

As things stand, Fiji are favourites to win gold, having topped the World Series, winning three events, including the prestigious Hong Kong Sevens, this season. The Fijiana as they are known finished eighth in the overall series standings this year and are led by influential skipper Ana Maria Roqica.

“We’re better than that”, said Canada’s Jen Kish.

But one group of women will be showcasing their sport at a Games for the very first time.

Lesser powers such as Kenya, Samoa and Scotland pulled off big shocks to win titles at the three concluding tournaments, though Fiji and fellow heavyweight New Zealand both lifted three of the preceding seven.

Fiji won the two most recent World Rugby Sevens Series titles.

Kish was a quick study and was soon captain of Canada’s Under-19 rugby team. The players will then reconvene on Monday, with the teams knocked-out battling for 12th-5th place, and the top four taking part in semi-finals ahead of the medal matches.