New Zealand recovered from a shock loss to Japan and a serious injury to Sonny Bill Williams in an intriguing day of rugby sevens at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Williams ruptured his achilles and had to be driven off in a medicab during Japan’s incredible 14-12 triumph.
Williams’ injury happened in a tackle halfway through the second half.
Despite the setback New Zealand scored to lead by five with two minutes to play, but Japan refused to go away and Kameli Soejima pounced for a crucial try to tie the scores.
It was left to Ktsuyuki Sakai to nail the winning the conversion.
“It was unbelievable,” Japan’s Lomano Lemeki said after the game.
“You never think you would see a minnow team come here and beat a gold medal contender.”
“New Zealand started to struggle a bit there so we thought if we keep moving the ball around the big guys would tire somewhere and they did.
UNBELIEVABLE #JPN @jrfurugby #rugby7s #olympics @manolycious pic.twitter.com/pNHmUIJFjJ
— Tom Chick (@tomchick85) August 9, 2016
Fantastic win over @nz7s @manolycious . @JapanRugby must be thrilled knowing the biggest party @WorldRugby7s is in Tokyo 2019. Olympics 2020
— William Los'e (@willielose) August 9, 2016
With Williams out for the rest of the tournament, New Zealand managed to make up for the Japan result by easily accounting for Kenya 28-5.
Proud of my @nz7s brothers tonight, I Look forward 2 supporting the lads tomorrow also congrats to @JRFURugby on their victory earlier.
— Sonny Bill Williams (@SonnyBWilliams) August 9, 2016
It left them in second place in Group C ahead of Japan on for and against after the Japanese side narrowly lost to Great Britain with a missed conversion at the end of the game.
New Zealand now face a big game against Great Britain tomorrow morning (AEST). If New Zealand lose and Japan win, one of the gold medal favourites could be out of the Olympics, depending on how the third place standings go.
“We’ve just shown that any team can win in sevens,” Lameki said.