Hong Kong Sevens: Great Britain take third – and set their sights on Olympic qualification
- Newcomers grab victory over Fiji at the death for best-ever result at a HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournament
- ‘It’s a work in progress. We’ve made plenty of mistakes this year but we just keep getting better,’ coach Nicholas Wakley says
Victory for Great Britain in the third-place playoff, 22-19 in a thriller over Fiji, will be savoured for now, but attention will quickly turn to the future and to hopes that both sides can soon threaten the women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series’ two powerhouses.
The gulf in class had been on display in the semi-finals on Sunday, as Great Britain fell to Australia 21-5 and New Zealand beat the Fijians 31-5, but the simple fact the losers had made it through to their first semi-final of the season was reason enough to celebrate.
“They’re the clear stand-outs for me, both teams, and they’re setting standards at the minute,” Nicholas Wakley, the Great Britain coach, said. “We’ve got to get more contact time, got to get harder work done with the group on the team but it’s going in the right direction.
“We knew this was going to be a bit of a rush, in terms of getting everything together, so it’s a work in progress. We’ve made plenty of mistakes this year but hopefully ones that we can correct and we just keep getting better.”
In their first World Rugby Sevens Series, Great Britain are still very much a work in progress, but Wakley has them growing by the tournament.
That much was on display in a riotous play-off, decided with a last-gasp score in the far right corner from Isla Norman-Bell that needed a video replay before it was cleared.
Great Britain had capitalised on mistakes early in the final, Jasmine Joyce picking up a loose ball to score and then Lisa Thomson intercepting a wild Fijian pass to do the same.
Fijian nerves settled and when they turned to their natural game of pace and power, they clawed their way back into the contest with tries to Meredani Qoro and Viniana Riwai, and a conversion edged them ahead 12-10.
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Team GB had been resilient all week long, though, and they kept coming, and though they had fallen behind 17-19 with the horn sounding, there was still time enough left for Norman-Bell’s heroics.
“When we made the semi [with a win over France] it was a build-up of emotion,” said Wakley. “These players give up a lot, they sacrifice a lot and it’s right when they get their just rewards for that hard work. You know, a bit of emotion spilled over and it’s nice to see it’s nice to harness it.”
Fiji team manager Jim Volavola said he was proud of the commitment shown all week by his charges as they made their debuts on a Hong Kong stage that has over the years been lit up by so many stars from the country.
“Now they are on the same stage as Fiji’s legends so I’m really proud of the girls today,” he said.
Fiji’s bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics altered the landscape for the women’s game across the islands, but economic needs have seen any number of their most promising talent poached by country’s such as Japan, where there is far more money than could ever be offered back home.
“It’s so difficult,” said Volavola. “Right now the sevens in Fiji is getting much better now from the women’s point of view and at the moment, we are still trying to build up a wider base so that we can get some good girls to come up.
It’s really tough. You can’t hold them back because at the end of the day, it’s about the family. So you have to let them take the opportunities when they come.”
There are still three teams in the mix for the fourth and final automatic qualification for next year’s Paris Olympics, with Ireland on 64 points ahead of Fiji on 62 and Great Britain on 60. That basically means the season’s final tournament in Toulouse from May 12-14 will be a shoot-out.
“There’s still an outside shot of qualifying automatically,” Wakley said. “There’s obviously the qualifier we can get into so it’s a marathon not a sprint for us we’re just trying to build with every game.”
