The Paris Olympics has gotten underway in terrific fashion this week, with the French capital playing host to a whole world of athletes and superstars as the first few events took place.
The team games have been top of the order so far, with football, sevens rugby and handball stealing the show in front of thousands of eager and excitable spectators ahead of the opening ceremony – set to take place on Friday.
The Rugby Sevens has been treated like the festival of sport that it is, with a record crowd of 69,000 people stacking out the ginormous 80,000-seat Stade de France, with some of the greatest names in world rugby turning up to perform.
Names such as Antoine Dupont, Hugo Keenan and Mark Nawaqanitawase lit up the stage as recent converts from the 15s game alongside existing 7s legends such as USA’s Perry Baker and South Africa’s Selvyn Davids.
In case you forgot how quick Perry Baker is 🚀
Here is a reminder ⬇️#Paris2024 | #RugbySevens https://t.co/f5bJqLn18D pic.twitter.com/9LfXypP2j6
— Rugby Sevens (@SVNSSeries) July 25, 2024
The pool stages have now been concluded, with the knockout stages set to take place in just a few short hours.
The first round of knockouts will be between the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th place teams from the pools. This will be followed up shortly afterwards by four matches of the highest sevens quality, with eight teams competing for the grand prize as the quarter-finals get underway.
Men’s placing 9-12:
7:00 pm: Samoa vs Japan
7:30 pm: Uruguay vs Samoa
Men’s quarter-finals:
8:00 pm: New Zealand vs South Africa
8:30 pm: Argentina vs France
9:00 pm: Fiji vs Ireland
9.30 pm: Australia vs USA
GENTLEMEN….
Start. Your. Engines…
8pm French Time.
NZ v SA 🇿🇦
Arg 🇦🇷 v FRA 🇫🇷
Fij v Ire 🇮🇪
Aus 🇦🇺 v USA 🇺🇸ADVERTISEMENTSee you there! #RugbySevens
— Rob Vickerman (@robvickerman) July 25, 2024
Full World Rugby report here:
- Hosts and SVNS Grand Final champions France face SVNS 2024 league winners Argentina in mouthwatering Olympic quarter-final clash
- New Zealand are up against South Africa, double Olympic Champions Fiji play Ireland while Australia take on the USA
- The USA’s Perry Baker scores four tries against Uruguay to draw level with compatriot Carlin Isles on the all-time Olympic try-scorers’ list with nine tries
- Rugby Sevens continued to light up the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in front of another full house of more than 65,000 fans at Stade de France
- The quarter-final action begins at 20:00 local time (GMT+2) on Thursday evening
Four-try Perry Baker drew level with Carlin Isles on the all-time Olympic try-scorers’ list on Thursday afternoon, as USA, France, and South Africa made sure of quarter-final places on the second day of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 men’s rugby sevens at Stade de France.
USA will face Australia in the last eight following Baker’s exploits against Uruguay on Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, defending two-time champions Fiji extended their perfect Olympic record to finish top of Pool C, and set up a quarter-final against Ireland.
Hosts France will face Argentina in Thursday evening’s quarter-finals in a repeat of the SVNS Grand Final, after finishing second in their Pool on points difference.
In the other quarter-final, New Zealand face South Africa. New Zealand left it late to win a dramatic Pool A decider against Ireland 14-12. While South Africa signed off from the pool phase with a convincing seven-try 49-5 victory over Japan to set up their quarter-final clash with the All Blacks Sevens.
Australia finished top of Pool B after beating Argentina 22-14 in the Pool B decider. Earlier, Samoa won the battle of the day-one crowd-pleasers as they beat Kenya 24-0 at a sun-soaked Stade de France.
Fiji sevens legend Jerry Tuwai – the only rugby player to hold two Olympic gold medals – scored as the defending champions maintained their perfect Olympic winning record, beating hosts France 19-12 in a thrilling and physical encounter to finish top of Pool C.
Earlier, Perry Baker became the first man to score four tries in an Olympic sevens match as they beat Uruguay 33-17 to book their place in the knockout phase of the men’s rugby sevens competition with their second win in Pool C. Only Reapi Ulunisau, of Fiji’s women’s team, had scored four tries in a game before. Baker is now level with former team-mate Carlin Isles as the most prolific Olympic men’s try scorer, with nine.
The quarter-final action begins at 20:00 local time (GMT+2) on Thursday evening with another packed house expected at Stade de France.
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