South Africa and Fiji qualify for Rio Olympics with Glasgow quarter-finals
Sunday 10 May 2015 11:18, UK
South Africa and Fiji qualified for the Rio Olympics when they reached the Glasgow Sevens quarter-finals on Saturday.
Fiji in particular were excited by the achievement; the sevens team is Fiji's most successful in world sports, and will be under pressure to win the South Pacific nation its first medal at any Olympics, summer or winter.
"It feels a little bit emotional," Fiji coach Ben Ryan said. "We've put in so much work to get to this stage, and I know everyone on the island will be delighted with this. It's really a fantastic day for Fiji."
The two sides will meet in the quarter-final on Sunday, which will dent the overall title hopes of one of the wide as the series nears its climax. Fiji has won two of the three previous encounters between the two teams this season.
Fiji, victors in three of the seven tournaments so far, beat Wales 40-17 in their opening pool fixture, before getting the better of Portugal 49-12 and finishing with a strong 45-5 victory over hosts Scotland.
South Africa came back from 5-0 down to Kenya at halftime to win 22-5.
New Zealand made an even bigger comeback when they bounced back from being 19-0 down against Samoa to win 26-19 thanks to a hat-trick of tries from Rieko Ioane, younger brother of Auckland Blues star flanker Akira.
New Zealand, the defending series champion and defending Glasgow champ, muted South Africa's celebrations slightly by winning their pool match 24-19, with a strong display of the basics as they topped the group.
New Zealand will also qualify for Rio should they reach the semi-final on Sunday at Scotstoun Stadium. In order to do so they will need to beat the hosts.
The other quarter-finals sees the impressive Canada facing England, before their North American brothers USA take on Australia after beating Argentina in the final pool fixture.
Canada lost to Argentina, but thrashed the U.S. and Japan to advance to the next stage of competition.
England were unbeaten after opening with a 17-17 draw against Australia while Australia topped the pool on points difference.
