Olympic Men’s Sevens quarter-final: Fiji 19 Ireland 15
Ireland fell out of the medals in the Stade de France on Thursday night when twice Olympic champions Fiji sprung a second-half blitz of tries to win their Olympic Games quarter-final match.
It was a brave end but short of Irish pre-tournament ambitions to win a first rugby medal at an Olympic Games. The pity is they were good enough to do it.
From the whistle against Fiji it was a tough challenge with Ireland getting off to a shocking start to the match after kicking off.
Within a few phases and a matter of seconds the athletic Iosefo Baleiwairiki was punching a hole through the centre of the field and galloping away to score under Ireland’s posts. It was a deflating start and barely a minute had passed with the conversion putting Ireland 7-0 in arrears in the blink of an eye.
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The upswing was that Ireland didn’t lose composure and three minutes into the game Chay Mullins replied, muscling over the line with a Fijian defender on his shoulder. After a second look for a possible knock-on the referee awarded the try, an unsuccessful conversion leaving Fiji 7-5 ahead.
[ Fiji 19 Ireland 15: As it happenedOpens in new window ]
But Ireland continued in that vein, holding on to the ball and not allowing Fiji play their natural game. Ireland also kept pushing and again Mullins went over for his second score of the match.
Good work from Gavin Mullin on the left side of the pitch made the space but again Mullins execution was good as Ireland closed the half 10-7 ahead. What a turnaround that was for confidence and momentum.
Certainly, Ireland had the go-forward game at that stage with the Irish players continuing to press after the break. Again, they found themselves pressing the Fijians back and on to their line in the left corner.
When it looked as though the defence had covered the Irish numbers, the outstanding Zac Ward went around the outside to dive in at the corner flag for his third try of the competition. Again, the referee looked for a knock-on and again the Irish try was awarded with Ireland taking a 15-7 lead.
Comfortable at that point Fiji did as they often do and struck back twice from nothing really. The first came in the 11th minute with Joji Nasova bumping off a number of Irish tackles before finishing an attacking phase from deep in the Fijian half.
Within a minute they were up again scoring, this time the ball from a restart running loose but with hints of a Fiji knock-on as the athletic Waisea Nacqu latched on to it first and drove over the Irish line. It was converted for 19-15 and suddenly Ireland were chasing the match.
It was to end that way, much good endeavour from Ireland but ultimately magic from Fiji in another game that was there for winning.
It was the body language of the Irish players after narrowly losing to New Zealand in their last Pool A match earlier on Thursday said as much as they needed to say about the Olympic journey. It wasn’t over but had just become steeper.
Ireland had stolen a step on New Zealand with tries from Ward and Jordan Conroy for a 12-0 half-time lead before New Zealand hit back in the second half scoring a late try and converting it just as the final hooter sounded.
Although Hugo Keenan was bravely upbeat about his side’s potential to beat any team, Ireland’s involvement in the medal matches, the ones they had set their hearts on winning, perished a little with New Zealand’s last-gasp try and conversion for a snatched 14-12 win.
There was no little shock in the way the game upended a momentum that appeared to be working in Ireland’s favour before shockingly falling the way of the Sevens All Blacks.
Ireland deserved more. They deserved more on the pitch and a better draw for coming second in the pool, although the likely scenario if they lost, was known before they played.
A few lapses that allowed New Zealand surge back from two tries down to win the match by two points and consign Ireland to a quarter-final against twice Olympic Champions Fiji and not South Africa, who they had already beaten in the pool meeting, certainly coloured the canvas differently.
Fiji came into the quarter-final with a gold standard unmatched by any other Sevens team. Unbeaten over eight years, three Olympic Games and 15 straight matches, their athletic, open style of playing the game as effective as it was thrilling to watch.
Fiji won the 2016 Rio gold medal by winning six matches in succession, repeated that against in Tokyo with a second gold medal and have won their three Pool C games and a quarter-final.
No luck of the Irish in Paris 2024.
IRELAND (v Fiji): H McNulty, M Roche, Z Ward, J Conroy, T Kennedy, G Mullin, Niall Comerford. Replacements: J Kelly, A Smith, C Mullins, H Keenan, H Lennox.
FIJI: J Talacolo, I Baleiwairiki, J Tuwai (capt), I Teba, K Rasaku, S Ravutaumada, R Josaia, Replacements: J Nasova, J Matana, T Veilawa, F Nacuqu, F Sauturaga.
Referee: N Hogan (NZ).
IRELAND (v New Zealand): H McNulty, M Roche, Z Ward, J Conroy, H Keenan, T Kennedy, N Comerford. Replacements: J Kelly, A Smith, C Mullins, H Lennox, G Mullin.
NEW ZEALAND: S Curry, A Rokolisoa, D Collier (capt), F Fineanganofo, M Leo, L Carter, J Webber. Replacements: B Rush, T Ng Shiu, N McGarvey-Black, A Knewstubb, T Cook-Savage
Referee: J Way (Aus).
