Andy Friend says underdog Aussies will be dangerous in bid for Olympic medal
THEY are the forgotten team of the Olympic sevens tournament – and that suits Australian coach Andy Friend just fine as his team look to cause a stir in Rio.
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THEY are the forgotten team of the Olympic sevens tournament – and that suits Australian coach Andy Friend just fine.
Despite coming fourth in the world series in 2015-16, Australia’s mens sevens team barely feature when it comes to forecasts about who’ll stand atop the podium in Rio next week.
Fiji are on a fairytale mission to claim their country’s first ever gold, South Africa are a ruthless machine capable of stopping them and New Zealand are stewing after dropping their world ranking from no.1 to no.3 this year.
A rising USA team have their fans and Kenya showed they had the right stuff by winning a tournament in Singapore this year.
Australia? Oh, yeah, Australia are in the Olympics too.
Raise the question of flying under the radar with Friend and the coach can only grin.
“All Australians perform better when you’re the underdog and you’re not meant to do much,” Friend said.
“We came fourth (in the world series), which is not on the podium and we know that’s not acceptable from where we want to get to.
“We need to lift the game and that’s what we have been focusing the last two and a half months on.
“But when you put our strongest combination together, it is a pretty dangerous combination. “Injury is going to play a part and hopefully we are not affected by that, but just on pure form and the combinations we have been working on, the boys are ready to go and they will be a tough opposition to beat.”
Australia pieced their best form together towards the start of the season, and finished runners-up in three tournaments to show they can challenge the best sides.
Friend spent much of the rest of the World Series trialling players and rotating, but he has a firm idea now of his best team and believes they can recapture their early season form.
“I have rotated a lot of players this year but this is not about rotation. In my head I know my best seven, I know who can come on and inject at the right time. It is not about giving people minutes for being kind to them. It is about winning a medal,” he said.
“There will be some blokes getting a lot of minutes and a few probably not getting as many.”
Fiji are raging favourites but Friend said he’d be interested to see how they dealt with the pressure of a expecting nation.
“They are a quality side. The weight of Fiji is resting on their shoulders, which is big pressure. But they have been the world champions for the last two years. They have earned the right to be respected. They are going to be tough opposition,” Friend said.
Will the pressure get to them?
“You never know. We can all recall a story of a great Olympic athlete who has turned up to the Games and done nothing,” Friend said.
“But you can also recall the ones who were meant to win and did win. History will tell.”
Originally published as Andy Friend says underdog Aussies will be dangerous in bid for Olympic medal
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