Norton goes over to put GB in the medals
South Africa are seen off with tough tackling Team united after only 10-week campaign
Britain’s sevens team, who were formed 10 weeks ago with a kangaroo court drinking session in Moscow, guaranteed an Olympic medal when they beat South Africa 7-5 in the semi-finals. Regardless of the result of last night’s final against Fiji, it must rank among the most unexpected of British success stories at these Rio Games.
Where other teams on the circuit had been preparing two years or longer for the moment when rugby returned to the Olympic fold after a 92-year wait, Team GB coach Simon Amor only got his players together for the first time on May 30. England, Wales and Scotland all compete as separate nations in the World Sevens Series, where their results this season veered between the disappointing and disastrous .
In a few weeks at their base at the Lensbury Club in Teddington, Amor has had to whip a group of disparate players into shape while instilling a united British identity. Stuart Pearce and Denise Lewis were brought in to address the players, but sometimes there is nothing better than a pint in forming tight bonds, which was what transpired in Moscow during their first tournament under the GB flag.
That togetherness has been in evidence here. Although they have only scored two tries in knockout games against Argentina and South Africa – one of those was in golden point time – Britain have saved many more through their ferocious tackling and scrambling defence.
Against South Africa, speedsters Dan Norton and Marcus Watson each prevented a certain try with a cover tackle in either half while Phil Burgess’s thunderous hit on Philip Snyman knocked the stuffing out of the Blitzboks.
“It hasn’t been pretty all week,” said James Davies, whose spoiling work at the breakdown has been a thing of beauty. “We’re just grinding out our wins, but a team that doesn’t play well and still keeps winning is a sign of a great team.”
Britain have also had luck on their side. They would not even have been in the semi-finals had Argentina captain Gaston Revel not missed a dropped goal bang in front of the posts at the end of normal time. South Africa, too, were guilty of prolifigacy.
After establishing an early lead through Kyle Brown, they seemed poised to score a second following Norton’s tremendous tackle on Roscko Specman. Yet with a threeman overlap Kwagga Smith inexpli- cably chose to step inside, allowing Britain to snuff out the danger.
Britain made him pay in the second half. Norton stepped inside Dylan Sage to go under the posts after Britain had spread the ball through Tom Mitchell and Phil Burgess. Mitchell’s conversion put Britain 7-5 ahead, and that’s how it finished, although there was a scare right at the end when the ball was put out of play before the referee had signalled full-time. Yet again they had dug themselves out of trouble with their defensive resilience.
“That’s the most special feeling I’ve ever had,” Davies said. “One of our mottos is never say die. The scramble defence has been absolutely amazing. We’re showing what we’re about on this pitch.”