The men's rugby sevens tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics was held in Brazil. It was hosted at the Deodoro Stadium, a temporary outdoor stadium constructed as part of the Deodoro Modern Pentathlon Park in Rio de Janeiro. The tournament was held from 9 August to 11 August 2016, starting with group matches before finishing with the medal ceremony on 11 August. The 2016 Games marked the first time that rugby sevens has been played at the Olympics, and the first time since 1924 that any form of rugby had been played at the Olympics.
The gold medal for Fiji represented the first Olympic medal earned by Fiji at any Olympics. Great Britain won silver and South Africa defeated Japan to win the bronze medal.
Qualification With Brazil being the hosts, their team automatically qualified despite their sevens team not regularly appearing in the World Rugby Sevens Series. The 2014–15 Sevens World Series was the initial stage of qualification, with the top 4 teams at the end of the series gaining qualification to the 2016 Olympic Games. Between June and September 2015, each of the six regional rugby unions held an Olympic qualification event, where one team from each region qualified, bringing the total up to 11 teams qualified. The final spot was determined by a repechage tournament held in Monaco, where the winner of that event became the final team to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games.
As a result of England finishing fourth in the 2014–15 Sevens World Series, Great Britain were awarded a spot in the Olympic Games, despite the other nations failing to qualify in the top 4. This is because Great Britain compete as one union in the Olympics and as several in international rugby (Rugby Football Union for England, Welsh Rugby Union, Scottish Rugby Union and the combined Irish Rugby Football Union for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland), which meant should one of either the England, Wales or Scotland teams qualify, then Great Britain would be awarded a spot in the Olympic Games. It was decided players based in Northern Ireland were not eligible to represent Great Britain in the rugby sevens tournament as these players represent the IRFU, and the union demanded that Northern Irish players that have committed to play for the Irish rugby union, only play for Ireland despite being eligible under IOC rules to compete for Great Britain. The three remaining unions agreed in advance of the 2013–14 Sevens World Series that their highest-finishing teams in that season would represent all three unions in the first stage of qualification.
Qualified teams Nation Means of qualification Host nation 2014–15 Sevens World Series top 4 finishers 2015 CONSUR Sevens Champions 2015 NACRA Sevens Champions 2015 Rugby Europe Sevens Champions 2015 ARFU Sevens Champions 2015 Oceania Sevens Champions 2015 Africa Cup Sevens Champions 2016 Final Olympic Qualification Champions
Squads
Draw The draw for the tournament took place on 28 June 2016. The 12 teams were seeded based on their points they have accumulated over the past two seasons on the Sevens Series circuit. The four teams that qualified directly from the 2014–15 Sevens World Series were guaranteed a top four seeding, with their positioning determined by their combined score over the two seasons.
Seed 1Seed 2Seed 3 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12)
Competition schedule The men's rugby tournament takes place over three days:Olympic Schedule . Rio2016.com. Accessed 4 July 2016. Date Event August 9 12 group play matches August 10 6 group play matches Quarterfinals August 11 Semifinals Final and bronze matches Medal ceremony
Match officials World Rugby announced a panel of twelve match officials on 11 April 2016 for the men's sevens. Two Brazilians were later added as assistant referees.
Mike Adamson (Great Britain) Federico Anselmi (Argentina) Nick Briant (New Zealand) Ben Crouse (South Africa) Craig Joubert (South Africa) Richard Kelly (New Zealand) Anthony Moyes (Australia) Matthew O'Brien (Australia) Taku Otsuki (Japan) Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa) Alexandre Ruiz (France) Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa) Henrique Platais (Brazil) – Assistant referee Ricardo Sant'Anna (Brazil) – Assistant referee
Pool stage In pool play, each team plays one match against the other three teams in the group. Three points are awarded for a win, two points - for a draw, and one point - for a loss.Olympic draw and competition process, WorldRugby.org. Accessed 4 July 2016.
Group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals. Third place teams drop to a third-placed teams table, where the top two third placed teams advance to the quarter-finals. Rankings are based on competition points; if teams are tied, the next tiebreaker is points difference.
Pool A
Pool B
Pool C
Ranking of third-placed teams The top two of the third-placed teams advance to the knockout rounds.
Knockout stage The quarterfinals were scheduled for August 10, with the semifinals and finals scheduled for August 11.
9–12th place playoff
Semi-finals
11th Place
9th Place Final
5–8th place playoff
Semi-finals
Seventh Place
Fifth Place Final
Medal playoff
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Bronze-medal match
Gold-medal match
Team details P 3 Semi KunataniL 5 Leone NakarawaH 2 Jasa VeremaluaFL 7 Osea Kolinisau (c)FH 10 Samisoni ViriviriC 12 Masivesi DakuwaqaSH 9 Seremaia TuwaiSubstitutes:P 1 Apisai DomolailaiL 4 Viliame MataN 8 Josua TuisovaFL 6 Kitione TaligaHead Coach: Ben Ryan P 3 Phil BurgessN 8 James DaviesL 5 James RodwellC 12 Mark BennettFL 7 Dan BibbyFL 6 Tom Mitchell (c)L 4 Dan NortonSubstitutes:FH 10 Sam CrossSH 9 Ollie Lindsay-HagueP 1 Mark RobertsonW 11 Marcus Watson H 2 Ruaridh McConnochieHead Coach: Simon Amor
Final ranking Rank Team Matches Points Avg points Tries Avg tries616026.67264.3369215.33142.33613622.67223.67469515.83152.505610717.83172.836610217.00162.67769515.83142.33868814.67142.339510721.4173.40105438.671.401155511.0091.80125244.840.80
Player statistics
Try scorers 6 tries Carlin Isles
5 tries
Josua Tuisova Billy Odhiambo Cecil Afrika
4 tries
Matías Moroni Tom Cusack Osea Kolinisau Terry Bouhraoua Dan Norton Lomano Lemeki Akira Ioane Rosko Specman Marcos Poggi Danny Barrett
3 tries
Gastón Revol Jesse Parahi Vatemo Ravouvou Jerry Tuwai Jasa Veremalua Dan Bibby Teruya Goto Rieko Ioane Regan Ware Kyle Brown Seabelo Senatla
2 tries
Santiago Álvarez Axel Müller Con Foley Ed Jenkins Semi Kunatani Viliame Mata Kitione Taliga Damien Cler Stephen Parez Virimi Vakatawa Mark Bennett James Rodwell Kazuhiro Goya Collins Injera Lewis Ormond Justin Geduld Nate Ebner Maka Unufe
1 try
Nicolás Bruzzone Pablo Fontes Juan Imhoff Ángel López Fernando Luna Franco Sábato Germán Schulz Cameron Clark Henry Hutchison John Porch Gustavo Albuquerque Laurent Bourda-Couhet Felipe Claro Daniel Sancery Leone Nakarawa Samisoni Viriviri Jérémy Aicardi Julien Candelon Manoël Dall'igna Sacha Valleau Phil Burgess James Davies Marcus Watson Kazushi Hano Yusaku Kuwazuru Katsuyuki Sakai Kameli Soejima Lote Tuqiri Willy Ambaka Andrew Amonde Scott Curry Gillies Kaka Tim Mikkelson Augustine Pulu Juan de Jongh Cheslin Kolbe Dylan Sage Kwagga Smith Philip Snyman César Sempere Perry Baker Folau Niua
Point scorers 43 points Terry Bouhraoua
42 points Cecil Afrika
38 points Osea Kolinisau
37 points Gastón Revol
30 points Carlin Isles
25 points
Vatemo Ravouvou Josua Tuisova Billy Odhiambo
22 points
Kazuhiro Goya Lomano Lemeki
20 points
Matías Moroni Tom Cusack Tom Mitchell Dan Norton Akira Ioane Seabelo Senatla Roscko Speckman Marcos Poggi Danny Barrett Madison Hughes
19 points Gillies Kaka
15 points
Jesse Parahi Jerry Tuwai Jasa Veremalua Dan Bibby Teruya Goto Rieko Ioane Regan Ware Kyle Brown
14 points Justin Geduld
13 points Augustine Pulu
12 points
James Stannard Kitione Taliga
11 points Katsuyuki Sakai
10 points
Santiago Álvarez Axel Müller Con Foley Ed Jenkins Semi Kunatani Viliame Mata Damien Cler Stephen Parez Virimi Vakatawa Mark Bennett James Rodwell Collins Injera Lewis Ormond Nate Ebner Maka Unufe
8 points Francisco Hernández
7 points Marcus Watson
6 points
James Stannard Samuel Oliech
5 points
Nicolás Bruzzone Pablo Fontes Juan Imhoff Ángel López Fernando Luna Franco Sábato Germán Schulz Cameron Clark Henry Hutchison John Porch Gustavo Albuquerque Laurent Bourda-Couhet Felipe Claro Daniel Sancery Leone Nakarawa Samisoni Viriviri Jérémy Aicardi Julien Candelon Manoël Dall'igna Sacha Valleau Phil Burgess James Davies Kazushi Hano Yusaku Kuwazuru Kameli Soejima Lote Tuqiri Willy Ambaka Andrew Amonde Scott Curry Tim Mikkelson Juan de Jongh Cheslin Kolbe Dylan Sage Kwagga Smith Philip Snyman César Sempere Perry Baker Folau Niua
4 points Biko Adema
2 points
Lucas Duque André Silva Vincent Inigo Chris Wyles
See also Rugby sevens at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament
References
External links Official website