- Australia’s rugby sevens team begins its Olympic journey on Wednesday
- The sevens team faces Samoa in Paris
- The opening ceremony will begin on Saturday morning.
The long-awaited Olympic opening ceremony kicks off in the early hours of Saturday morning in Australia, but the first Aussies will be in action long before the big event in Paris.
Many Australians will be staying up all night waiting for the next two weeks of bonanza as the country’s top prospects aim to make history in Europe.
And due to a scheduling conflict, some events will be held before the opening ceremony, with the Australian rugby sevens team being the first to begin their Olympic adventure.
The men’s team will face Samoa in the Pool B match at 23:30 AEST, and will also face Argentina and Kenya. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final await the Australians if they perform well in Paris.
It is the first time the seven-man event will be held before the opening ceremony, and the Guardian explains that the reason for this is to allow players adequate time to rest between matches.
There will also be big names involved, including French superstar Antoine Dupont, who will be looking to get the home country’s gold medal race off to a flying start.
Meanwhile, the women will begin their journey in the sevens at midnight on Monday 29 July and will aim to overcome their disappointment in Tokyo three years ago.
And they are prepared to do it the hard way, even if it means facing arch-rivals New Zealand in the final.
Australia’s men’s rugby sevens team begins its Olympic journey on Wednesday
Players will compete before the opening ceremony begins.
“We’ve obviously been neck and neck with New Zealand the whole time and I think we feel pretty comfortable there,” Caslick said.
Australia’s stars claimed gold for the first time at the Rio 2016 Games, beating the Kiwis in a closely fought final.
But there was despair in 2021 when they finished outside the medals in fifth place.
Australia were eliminated by Fiji in the quarter-finals, and New Zealand seized the opportunity to take gold.
But Caslick maintains preparations have gone much more smoothly this time around after his campaign was hampered by COVID.
“I feel like we’re in a much better place than we were physically before Tokyo,” he said.
“We’ve beaten them (New Zealand) before, so we know how to play against them and how to beat them. I think we just have to be brave and go out there and give it our all.”
“At this stage, we probably won’t meet them until a grand final, so if everything goes to plan for both of us, I hope we meet.”