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Fiji win Olympics gold again, defeating New Zealand in Tokyo final

Waisea Nacuqu (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Fiji have successfully defended their Olympics Rugby Sevens men’s title, defeating New Zealand in the 2021 Tokyo decider 27-12 after a powerhouse start propelled them to another gold medal following their success at the 2016 Games in Rio. Favourites for the title, the Fijians got off to a dream start in the showpiece decider with Meli Derenalagi and Sireli Maqala scoring in the opening three minutes. 

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New Zealand hit back through Scott Curry but Fiji reached the interval 19-5 ahead after Jiuta Wainiqolo scored. This same tit-for-tat pattern was repeated in the second half, Sione Molia scoring for the Kiwis before Asaeli Tuivuaka grabbed the fourth Fiji try of a contest where they then landed a penalty from Waisea Nacuqu to see out their deserved 15-point Olympics final win. 

Argentina will join this duo on the medals podium as they bounced back from their 26-14 semi-final loss to Fiji to defeat Britain 17-12 in the bronze medal match. The Brits, beaten 29-7 in their semi versus New Zealand, took an early lead through Ben Harris but tries from Lautaro Bazan Velez and Marcos Moneta had the Argies 12-5 up at the break.

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Lions boss Warren Gatland explains his second Test team selection

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Britain levelled the scores midway through the second half, Ollie Lindsay-Hague supplying the finish, but Ignacio Mendy broke away for the bronze medal-sealing score. Elsewhere, South Africa defeated Australia 22-19 and then the USA 28-7 to seal a fifth-place finish.

Ronald Brown scored two tries in the win over the Aussies before tries from Justin Geduld, Sakoyisa Makata, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Stedman Gans proved too much for the Americans. Australia took seventh place by defeating Canada 26-7 while Kenya clinched ninth with a 22-0 win over Ireland, the team they had lost 12-7 to in the pool stages on Tuesday. Hosts Japan defeated South Korea 31-19 in the eleventh-place match.  

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Soliloquin 1 hour ago
All Blacks vs France takes: Rieko very rusty, France's MVP the TMO

« Stop crying? » really? Wow.

Sorry mate, but we’re not at that level of childish interaction.

Either we discuss arguments, either we don’t, but that’s not a viable framework.


You obviously have no history of what his the function of the French rugby coach (check the 2010s for that), his limitations, the negociations with the LNR, because if you knew, you wouldn’t write what you did, and writing it down in French won’t make it more persuasive.


Can you imagine controlling the national team when you don’t have control over the players because your employer is not in charge of their salaries?

Do you think Galthié embraced the fact that he couldn’t get his top players play more than 2 games in the 2020 Autumn Cup because of the arrangement with the Top14 clubs and overlap with the league?

Do you think he wouldn’t prefer to have everything at his disposal to make France win every competition?

Do you think he was happy to have his 42 players arrangement with the LNR questionned after the 2023 RWC? Do you think he’s happy he doesn’t have the same access to players as the other nations do?

No, no, no, no and no.


Answering with simple phrases, not responding to any argument (or simply with a very mature « stop crying »), not much knowledge and no real sense of nuance doesn’t help your and NB’s fantasized theory.


I don’t write about other countries’ when I don’t have the knowledge, and here NB didn’t do his job to deliver information. He just took stats to process an opinion.

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