Kelter leads United States to historic victory at 2016 Rio Olympics

They came together to do a job and he was a big part of that.

Kelter, the former captain of the U18 hockey team, is one of 12 players who will represent Team USA when women’s rugby is played for the first time ever at the Olympics beginning with a pair of US matches against Fiji at noon ET and Colombia at 5 p.m. ET.

This still takes me aback even after a week in the city, but none of us is complaining: according to a statistic dating from October 2014 reproduced in the front of my friend Misha Glenny’s outstanding book on the Rocinha favela – Nemesis – “One in every ten people killed around the world is a Brazilian”.

“We always knew the hosts were going to come out and perform like they did, but we weathered the storm, had a cracking second half and got the win”, Great Britain player and England World Cup victor Danielle Waterman said.

On Sunday, Carlyle and the USA hope to really create a ruckus.

Joyce came on as a second-half replacement and helped Team GB win pool C and set up a quarter-final against Fiji at 10pm on Sunday evening. In pool play Saturday, they shut out Fiji, 36-0, after crushing Colombia, 53-0. “Defensively, when we’re abrasive, we get ourselves into the game, but we let the USA back into it”. Eastern when they take on Venezuela, another team the Americans beat during their pre-Olympic exhibition tour.

Having been in Brazil for almost a week, Carlyle said the USA team had time to get settled and take a business-like approach to Saturday’s Olympic debut. Back then it was the 15-a-side version and only men played. Because lions are notoriously lazy creatures, letting their pride do most of the work, and one look at Kish will tell you she’s anything but lazy. “There was such build-up and anticipation coming here”. If a player “grounds” the ball, or touches it to the field after running it or it was kicked across the goal line, it’s five points.

Scarratt’s 2014 England team-mates – fellow proven global performers like Katy McLean, Danielle Waterman and Natasha Hunt – help provide crucial experience, and the skipper added: “We can definitely draw on two years ago. It’s fun just to be on the field with them”.

Wollongong flyer Tonegato added yet another five-pointer to put the game beyond doubt and Chloe Dalton scored her team’s sixth try of the game and seal a convincing win.

If you like de-cleatings and piles of players scratching and clawing for the ball, this is your game. Carlyle had entered the game for the first time with 3:16 left. “The beauty of the game, and also the frustration-depends on whose team you’re on-is that the games can turn very, very quickly”.

For Scarratt and her team-mates it more than vindicates the decision to concentrate on sevens rather than the 15-a-side game.

Melody Kotyk no longer plays for the Rockers, but was at the club when Kish was still there.

Facing a team in China that they blew out on two pre-Olympic exhibitions (by 50 and 49 points, respectively), the United States was expected to begin its run to a fourth consecutive gold medal in men’s basketball with an impressive showing at the Carioca Arena Saturday night.

Australia’s opponents in Pool A include relative unkowns Colombia who appeared in just one leg of the World Series this year, and also Fiji who are coached by former England Sevens player Chris Cracknell.

“I grew up with no mom and my dad worked a lot so it was just my brother and I and we were doing things 11-and 12-year-olds weren’t doing back then, grocery shopping, taking cabs or getting ourselves to our sports or cleaning the house and doing laundry, adult stuff”, Kish says. “But to be able to bring all of the athletic backgrounds into this sport has really been fascinating to see and made it so much fun to play”.