EVEN ON A Parisien night as suffused with magic as this, Ireland bargained for too much.
There will be no first Olympic medal for the Irish men’s sevens team, as they exit the tournament with that painfully familiar refrain: beaten in the quarter-final.
Ireland’s demand was enormous: to progress to Saturday’s medal games, they had to pull off the greatest shock in the men’s edition of the sport since its Olympic introduction at Rio 2016. Rugby Sevens is to Fiji what hurling is to Ireland, though they have hewn themselves to a sport that delivers international glory.
Fiji have won two Olympic gold medals in a history stretching back to 1956: the 2016 men’s Rugby Sevens and the 2020 men’s Rugby Sevens. Ireland were Fiji’s 16th Olympic opponent tonight, and they had beaten the previous 15.
But at half-time Ireland could dare to think the night’s sense of insubordination had come for them too. Having fallen behind within 75 seconds, Ireland rallied to lead 10-7 at the break, thanks to a couple of tries from Chay Mullins. Then it got even better, when the outstanding Zac Ward managed to contort his body to avoid falling into touch while plopping the ball down across the line.
Fiji hit back, however, when Nasova crossed despite Niall Comerford’s best intentions. Ireland will find their means of losing galling all the same. From the very next kick-off, Hugo Keenan was hoisted in the air to pluck the ball, but instead Fiji’s Iosefo Balekiwairkiri stole in behind and slapped the ball down to Teiro Veilawa, who had an empty route to the try line. It looked suspiciously like a knock-on, though the TMO was unmoved.
Ireland, chastened and exhausted, looked toothless across a lengthy endgame. They had two line outs, two penalties and a scrum after the hooter blasted, but they couldn’t punch their way through a Fiji defence so aggressive it paid zero respect to the clock. It ended in brutally unfair fashion with the otherwise outstanding Terry Kennedy throwing a sloppy pass to nobody that was seized upon by Fiji and gratefully booted out of play.
The Irish players sank across the field in dejection on a pitch that Hugo Keenan could be forgiven for thinking is a graveyard.
The Irish angst was at odds with what proved to be a fizzing, anarchic night. What is it with the Stade de France and quarter-finals?
First up, South Africa reprised the character arc of their XVs brethren: having been stodgy in a pool in which they were beaten by Ireland, they suddenly came alive in the knockouts, shocking New Zealand 14-7. They raced into a 14-0 lead at half-time and then clung onto it with the zeal of the converted, throwing themselves heroically at anything clad in black that dared to move, holding back opponents by the very seam of their jersey.
When South Africa prised the ball back for one final time with the clock at zero, they kicked the ball dead and the New Zealand players fell to the ground less in mourning than in utter shock. That’s unsurprising, given they’d beaten South Africa 17-5 less than 24 hours ago.
But that was only the start of the night’s bedlam. Argentina, arguably the outstanding side of the group phase, were the favourites against France, who had struggled wanly through to this point, finishing second in their pool and ahead of the USA on points difference only. The French even started Antoine Dupont on the bench.
Perhaps his team mates were by now more acclimatised to the 69,000-capacity crowd, but they looked liberated without their superstar. All of a sudden confidence and conviction returned to the French handling, and they set about carving Argentina apart, taking a scarcely-believable 21-0 lead into the break.
From there they had to enter survival mode, losing two tries but relieved for another pair of clock-gobbling TMO reprieves, one of which left them playing for two minutes with a man in the bin.
But Dupont led the resistance. France had the lead, the ball, and two minutes. Could they really hold on? They threw away any pretence to ambition and played keep-ball, Dupont doing so in heroic fashion. Taking the ball from the back of rucks, he generally stood still to invite tacklers onto him, at which point he muscled his way forward for a few vital yards and for a few glorious seconds.
The French somehow held out, as a frazzled Argentina lost their discipline in the roiling atmosphere. And for France it could not have ended more perfectly: Dupont, again standing to wind down the clock, suddenly spotted a gap as the klaxon sounded. He ran through and touched down to seal the game impossibly well.
France now face South Africa in a semi-final on Saturday, and they have jacknifed the whole sense of the occasion. Where they looked wan and clammy in their pool games, now they have an irresistible sense of momentum.
Ireland cannot say the same, but their original sin was in running into Fiji in the first place. Victory in the earlier pool game against New Zealand would have meant a last-eight tie with South Africa, but instead they let slip a game they held in a vice-like grip for seven minutes. Ireland led 12-0 at half-time, but Andrew Knewstub’s conversion of Ngarohi McGarvey-Black’s last-minute try condemning Ireland to an agonising 14-12 defeat.
The game slowly bled away from Ireland after a terrifically controlled first-half, in which they tamed the wild madness of Sevens with a bit of mid-noughties-Munster-in-Europe-enery, kicking their penalties to the corner and then used their line-out as the platform to punch holes in the New Zealand defence. Ireland should have scored before they did, but Hugo Keenan inexplicably spilled the ball under no pressure with the tryline in sight and a team mate off his shoulder.
“That was just a mistake on my my behalf”, admitted Keenan afterwards. “It’s a little bit greasy out there but that’s no excuse. I should have taken it, and should have finished it.”
Ireland did mint their control, however. The barrelling Zac Ward – arguably Ireland’s best performer of the Games – showed a neat step down the right wing to burn past Fehi Fineanganofo and cross. It got even better for Ireland just before the break when Jordan Conroy crossed for a second try that came at a significant cost. Conroy touched the ball down just as he was slammed in the back by Leo Moses, and couldn’t continue. He missed the Fiji clash too, a fact Ireland will rue for some time.
They will also rue their failure to convert from five metres. While New Zealand took a chunk out of Ireland’s lead with a try within 30 seconds of the restart, Ireland worked themselves back up the field and won a penalty five metres from the New Zealand line. Terry Kennedy initially tapped quickly and dived for the line, only to be called back by the referee, who then halted Ireland’s second attempt to play it quickly. Third time was no charm: when Jack Kelly tried the same move moments later he was left isolated by his team-mates and turned over. It was a poor and ultimately ruinous error.
New Zealand then borrowed from the Irish play-book, and kicked a penalty to touch. They tossed the line-out short and swept up the field, Lennox again bouncing off replacement Tepaea Cook-Savage, who offloaded to McGarvey-Black to level the game at the death, Ryan Crotty-style. And like on that November day in 2013, a draw was of no benefit to Ireland and so New Zealand kicked the conversion to take the game.
Ultimately, the Irish sevens side created too many counterparts for XVs heartbreaks tonight in Paris. Another worthy effort, and another quarter-final defeat.
