Fiji ends medal hopes for USA sevens, Nate Ebner
— -- RIO DE JANEIRO -- The U.S. rugby team's medal hopes in the men's sevens are over after it was knocked out of the competition by Fiji at the pool stage in the Rio Olympics.
After losing to Argentina and then beating Brazil on Day 1, the U.S. knew that a win, a tie or a loss by three or fewer points against Fiji would put the team in the quarterfinals at the expense of New Zealand. But after a roller-coaster match against Ben Ryan's Fiji squad, the U.S. team eventually slumped to a 24-19 defeat.
The loss was a huge disappointment to coach Mike Friday and his team, who headed into the Games targeting gold with Nate Ebner of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and speedsters Carlin Isles and Perry Baker on the squad.
Danny Barrett scored first for the U.S. against Fiji, but the Americans went into the break trailing 12-7. Perry Baker then struck early in the second half, only to have the Islanders cross twice to take a 24-14 lead.
A late try from Ebner gave the U.S. hope, and if Madison Hughes had slotted the conversion, the U.S. would have booked a spot in the knockouts at the expense of the Kiwis, but Hughes' kick missed.
The U.S. beat Brazil 24-12 on Wednesday afternoon and will finish the competition either ninth or 10th, depending on the result of their match against Spain on Thursday.
"We've come from being given less than a 10 percent chance of even making the Olympics to being here and being contenders," Friday said, according to USARugby.org. "I'm disappointed for the lads and I'm disappointed for the USA people because we've got a great game here, and the USA's embracing it. We have a good team here, three years ahead of schedule, but we were hoping -- and we set our standards -- to be in the main competition come the end of today."
Ebner said the exposure the Olympics provided rugby in the United States was "huge for the sport."
"We got here and tried to give this everything that we have," he said, according to USARugby.org. "Hopefully the American people see how great of a sport this really is. It's going to be up to America and the people in the United States, how they respond to what they've seen."
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