As John Wayne said in Stagecoach, “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.” As part of the mourning process after the Olympics (for the Australian fans), here are a few words that will hopefully provide some closure and acceptance.
It was a great six days of rugby. As cliché as it may sound, rugby won. (Except for the Australian fans at the end of the tournament.) Amazing tries, great tackles, big tackles, close matches, excitement, stadiums full of fans.
It was disappointing for Australian men, but it was still pretty good. To say it was disappointing for women would be an understatement. In general, the loss aversion bias is the idea that “the pain of losing is twice as psychologically powerful as the pleasure of gaining.”
So while the men performed better than some people expected, unfortunately the women’s performance outweighed those positive aspects and the great performances they put on.
Team Australia’s Teagan Levy #5 and Madison Levy #12 are cheered on by the crowd. (Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
No matter how much we invest, it is worth remembering that it is just a sport. But the old Divinyls lyric ‘There’s a fine line between pleasure and pain’ comes to mind. It certainly fits the sport and the Olympic experience of the Australian Sevens team.
Let’s go back to positive thinking.
Rugby Sevens has been a huge success at the Olympics. Sure, there are those who reject rugby sevens, but having 65,000 to 70,000 people a day at the Stade de France for six days is a huge deal for the sport. Rugby has never attracted so many new eyes. (We have to figure out how to keep them interested in the future.)
Outside of athletics, there may be no other sport that is watched more live than rugby.
The U.S. women’s bronze medal was painful, but it got a lot of coverage in the U.S., and a millionaire philanthropist donated $4 million to U.S. women’s rugby. You get the feeling that rugby has never had this much attention in the U.S., and that’s a good thing. (That joy and pain story again.)
Will Olympic success change the world? Probably not, but it might move the dial a little.
The men’s semifinals featured France, Fiji, South Africa and Australia. The women’s semifinals featured New Zealand, Canada, the United States and Australia. What did you notice? Australia is the only country to have played in both. Kudos to the Rugby AUs Sevens program, coaches and players.
Congratulations to the Kiwi women who were far ahead of the competition all year and deservedly took home the gold medal. We also saw a resurgence from North America with Canada taking silver and the USA bronze. As the flag was raised before the tournament, China is seriously improving, coming in sixth place.
It is worth mentioning that Kiwis demigod sevens coach Gordon Tietjens worked as a consultant for the Chinese program. Who knows what happened to the Fiji women’s team, who failed to win a match and lost to Brazil and China. There were more defeats than in the men’s tournament, but it was still enjoyable. More depth is needed with the performances of Canada and the United States.
PARIS, FRANCE – JULY 28: Team Australia gathers before the Women’s Pool B match between Australia and South Africa on day two of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Paris, France on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Alex Ho/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
The idea of missing out on a medal for the Australian women is almost unthinkable. They have missed the podium in only a handful of tournaments since the last Olympics. Despite big early wins and great attempts, there were always concerns about how their extensive injury list would affect them. It didn’t help that Kaitlyn Shave was out of the tournament after suffering a knee injury in the opening game. As a result, they were lacking depth on the bench. Some players looked like they were playing a lot of minutes. And the chronic problem of the physicality of their opponents resurfaced.
Despite that, they were very close to a medal. As is typical of rugby sevens, a few mistakes, missed tackles or dropped balls make the difference. They are still a superstar team.
One of the commentators called Faith Nathan the Iron Lady, saying she played in every match of every tournament this year. It was a great effort.
Australian rugby doesn’t have many true superstars but Maddie Levy is definitely one of them. “Maddie Levy has scored the most tries (14), gained the most metres (553), beaten the most defenders (21) and made the most line breaks (12) in Olympic Women’s Sevens. Teagan Levy has assisted the most tries (8) and made the most offloads (7). Sisters,” wrote X OptaJonny.
It would be a mistake not to mention superstars, and not to mention American Ilona Maher. In social media terms, she is currently the biggest rugby star in the world.
The men’s tournament ended in a storybook fashion with Antoine Dupont’s outstanding performance representing France in the gold medal match against two-time Olympic champions Fiji in Paris. It was perfect.
(Photo courtesy of Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
The Australian men fought and fought every minute of every game, as Australian men do. They just tried. Sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to. They’ll regret the medal opportunities they missed. They were so close. That’s sport. But they played great rugby and had some good wins, including against Argentina.
The selection of Corey Toole and Mark Nawaqanitawase was justified. They contributed. Overall, the team did really well. Thanks to Coach John Manenti and his coaching team for making the team.
With the tournament getting underway before the Opening Ceremony, the Australian men finally got the media coverage they deserved.
Finally, without going too deep, it is refreshing to enjoy sports and the Olympics in a world with so many problems as we have today. As a rugby fan, it was really great to see people, rugby fans and non-rugby fans, enjoying rugby every day.
As an Australian rugby fan it was a bit of a painful experience, but the Olympics were fantastic. Rugby won.
As Clint Eastwood said in #DirtyHarry “A man has to know his limits”. That’s all for my thoughts on rugby sevens.
