Rio Olympics

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Pretty sure he was talking about the depth of the field.
It's likely the top 5 this year will be top 5 in four years.
But the teams that finished 6th to 12th will be much more competitive.
Which will put much more strain on the weaker parts of our squad,making it a tougher event than this years.
Or at least,that's how I interprated his comments.

Is Hockey any different though?

In the men's game, the gold medal winners since 1908 are:
The Netherlands (2)
India (9)
Great Britain (3)
Pakistan (3)
Germany, both as FRG and unified (4)
Australia and NZ 1 each

In the women's, since 1984 [1980 doesn't count for mine]:
The Netherlands (3)
Australia (3)
Spain (1)
Germany (1)

I think his comments are ordinary.

 

[I like to watch]

You are focusing on the medal winners, where I think he was focusing on the depth of the field.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Does anybody really give a crap about who doesn't win the medals though? I mean, the US has dominated several sports over the years and nobody moans about their supposed lack of depth. Anyway, the whole thing just smacks of sour grapes for mine. I totally respect the guy for all his achievements in life and how sharp he is, but I think he's plain wrong. It's not going stop me from celebrating what a great thing this is for our great game though. Opinions are like arseholes and all that.

 

[I like to watch]

I understand his point.
I don't understand why he makes it.
It's not like we got a head start or an unfair advantage over the rest.
And it's like booing Santa.
He makes himself look like a nark,without it serving any purpose.

 

[DeadbeatFather]

Sitting here in Canada reading this and wanted you to know that people are ecstatic about a bronze in Rugby sevens. And, for all intents and purposes, I can see why. Gold? People would be crying in the streets. Unthinkable to win gold against the great teams. Don't even dare to have such dreams yet...

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Ric Charlesworth thinks this is a soft medal and that hockey and basketball are much tougher events.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-...labelled-soft-by-former-hockey-player/7709610

Now let's look at his claims

Basketball (last 5 olympics) - USA gold, Aus 3 silvers and twice bronze, other teams to place - Brazil x2, Russia x 2, France x 1.

Hockey (last 5 olympics) - Great Britian, China and South Korea are the only teams to feature once on the podium. Netherlands, Aus and Germany very dominant.

That doesn't strike me as a terribly open competition or tough for the USA. In both sports the same 3/4 teams have shared the majority of the spoils so he is incorrect.

Now the hockey players are struggling this year so maybe he is just grumpy but I think he needs to fuck off.

In the Women's 7s anyone of NZ, Can, USA, GB and on a good day France alongside ourselves were a realistic shot at medaling. Seems like a fairly consistent spread of teams with the two sports listed above.

I find his comments a little ignorant of the situation on the womens circuit. We all know the mens circuit is well established the womens is still pretty green in relative terms. Like the mens circuit, it will take a little time for the overall competition to even up as it has in the mens in general. Both Hockey and Basketball have had numerous Olympics and have yet to see a significant growth in contenders. I bet the Rugby 7s event will progress quicker than either.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Anyone else see the Matthew McConaughey interview on 7. It was a little surprising. Most of all because he had a reasonable understanding of Cricket and its different format. I had to chuckle there.

I have to wonder how many arhletes from otger sports have watched or read about these remarkable athletes and are now considering having a go. Not just in Australia either. Considering the overall success of how we went about it I wonder how many will lok to emulate our system.

 

[Jeeper]

What a pathetic performance.

 

[Highlander35]

Well. That was odd. Aussie boys looked lethargic. Odd calls, not bad ones, just odd both ways from Adamson, but that's what I've come to expect.

 

[Rebels3]

Wow that was a low IQ performance. Lots of effort and enthusiasm but not very smart

 

[fo!!ower]

I hate to be negative but that's pretty much our Olympic campaign butchered already.

Unless we can beat SA (unlikely), or France trips up against Spain (very unlikely), we are doomed to a third place finish in our pool and unless we beat Spain by 50+ it's unlikely our F/A will be good enough to see us through as one of the 2 best third placers.

I really hope I'm wrong.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

[USARugger]

JAPAN DOES IT AGAIN!!

14-12 over NZ

 

[USARugger]

Very scrappy first half between USA and Argentina. Argies got up early with a quick tap try that probably should have ended with Madison Hughes going off for concussion assessment. Fortunately he was able to stay on the field (for all the speed and power USA has, Hughes is hands down the heart and soul of that squad and one of the best players on the circuit) for the rest of the half.

Neither side showed much of anything out wide and handling errors squandered any real attacking opportunities the two sides had.

7-0 Argentina going into the sheds

 

[USARugger]

Craig Joubert doing what he can to leave a mark on this game..

 

[USARugger]

Alright yeah Joubert is out of his fucking mind

So far Argentina have received 3 yellow cards, one for a 50/50 tip tackle, one for a very blatant tip tackle, and one from what should have been a try-saving tackle that simply boggles the mind.

Both teams have been awarded a try that they did not score.

Argentina up 12-7 with 2:30 to go and 2 players in the bin. USA have looked largely flat on attack and passive on defense, their normally superb restart game has been sorely lacking. Aggressive Argie defense dominated the USA up to this double yellow card.

With the 2 man overlap Danny Barrett canters in with Hughes converting to make it 14-12 to USA with about a minute left to go and Argentina back up to 6 players.

 

[USARugger]

USA restart doesn't go 10 - vintage Eagles stuff here. Argentina in possession with 20 seconds left, down by 2.

 

[USARugger]

Argentina play some hot potato with the ball and manage to get it into space, dotting down in the corner. Argentina win 17-14.

Neither USA or Argentina played very well (with the exception of the Argie defense through the first ~10 minutes) and Joubert had an absolute fucking shocker.

 

[USARugger]

Brazil in for the first try over Fiji - doing a great job maintaining possession and constantly changing their point of attack. Looking much more fluid on attack than either USA or Argentina did for most of their match.

Fiji haven't really seen any ball yet.

Conversion is wide, 5-0 Brazil.

 

[USARugger]

Didn't take long for Fiji to get in once they had the ball. Typical Fijian 7's, lots of cross-field runs with trailing runners inside and jinking up into a backpedalling defensive line that's too apprehensive about their offloading game to commit to a tackle and stop the attack.

Conversion is good, 7-5 Fiji.

 

[USARugger]

Fiji go coast to coast and look like they're going to get in after the hooter before a brave Brazilian defensive effort knocks the ball loose and ends the half.

BBC announcers refer to the Brazilian player as Spanish during their home Olympics.