Rio 2016 Olympic rugby: Team GB men must defy the odds to land medal in sevens

Dejected: Team GB's women on Monday
(David Rogers/Getty Images)

Britain's men will start their bid to go one better than the women, who finished fourth, when they begin their sevens campaign today but the odds are against them.

In men’s sevens, Britain have struggled to make a mark this season. England are the highest ranked team at eighth with Scotland in 10th — although boosted by winning the season finale in London — and Wales 12th.

However, captain Tom Mitchell puts that down to youngsters being blooded for the future with an eye on Rio.

“What we have that no other side has is that we’re a bit unknown as no one has ever played Great Britain before in rugby sevens,” says Mitchell. “We’re confident that with the talent we’ve got and how hard we’ve worked that we can do well.”

Britain play their first match in Pool C against Kenya at 4pm and then take on Japan at 9pm. They face a far tougher test tomorrow night when they play the All Blacks, boasting Sonny Bill Williams, while Fiji in Pool A are highly rated.

So is gold a realistic aspiration for Britain? “We’re confident we have a chance but the way the world series has gone this season it’s wide open,” said Mitchell. “Gone are the days when there are any easy games in sevens.”

Britain’s women finished fourth last night after two brutal contests.Reduced to just five players following two quickfire sin-binnings in the semi-final against No2 ranked New Zealand, they never had a chance and duly lost that encounter 27-5.

It was a psychological blow they then carried into the bronze-medal match against Canada.

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They had defeated Canada 22-0 in their pool match and clearly went into the contest with the belief a repeat was on the cards.

But they were deservedly beaten 33-10 as they were undone by another yellow card — this time for Emily Scarrett — and a virtuoso performance from Canada’s Ghislaine Landry.

Scarratt said: “We are bitterly disappointed. We came to this tournament wanting a medal and we came up a little bit short. We gave it everything.”

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