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Australian Olympic Team

Rugby

Olympics News: The Aussie Men’s Rugby 7s team on a roll to the medal semis after their wins v Argentina to top the group stage followed by an easy last eight win v USA

by Sports Benches

Can you believe it? The Aussie Men’s 7s team had another excellent field day on the road towards gold in the Men’s Olympic program. Not only they topped their Group stage undefeated off the back of a decent win v Argentina but they were also too good v Team USA in the last 8 with the medal semis to pick up tomorrow v Fiji. Now we need our Aussie supporters and for those currently in Paris to go to Stade De France this Saturday by cheering them up for the green & gold!!

Now that last group stage game was a bit challenging with the fast starts which is something they need to improve on, especially when going up against the top notch teams as always. But they’ve still done it though where they’ve bossed the pitch by expanding their attack through the wide areas on what has been a team-led effort against Argentina, 14-22.

Then as said above during the medal Quarter-Finals, we saw another team-led effort off the back of some amazing finishing tries from several players this time v Team USA 18-0.

No doubt they will be coming back hungry with a point to prove v gold medallists Fiji this weekend such as Henry Hutchinson, James Turner & ACT Brumbies regular Corey Toole. Then we can dream in order for the Aussies to get over the line should they make it for the Gold Medal match v either France or South Africa. They’ve came from a long way so far & hope they can replicate the success that the women’s team has done in this 7s format.  

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Rugby

Olympics News 2024: Australian Men’s Rugby 7s team off to a flying start overnight with back-to-back wins against Samoa and Kenya

by Sports Benches

The Australian Men’s Rugby 7s team were off to a brilliant start to the Olympics campaign with back-to-back wins v Samoa (21-14) and Kenya (21-7) last night. Now they’ve got Argentina next up tonight before they will turn their attention to the Medal Quarter-Finals later on during the day regardless of this final group stage result at Stade De France.

Yes, the only weaknesses they need to work on is the strong starts where the Aussies have been disadvantaged or have been levelled earlier on, especially when things may eventually go out of hand by the time they take on the other top-notch Olympic nations as it progresses. That next match v Argentina is the first real acid test where correcting this weakness could change everything so they can hopefully go all the way rather than being dropped out & not being able to win a medal.

However, they too have dominated for the majority though when it comes to the possession on this fast-paced format of Rugby off the back of a few brilliant tries and also a couple of opposition handling errors through the gate that sums up their perfect start of their Olympic campaign as still a long way to go towards chasing that gold medal come Saturday.

Hats off to Henry Hutchinson, who scored two tries in the first game v Samoa. So does an excellent group of backs on what has been a team-led brilliance v Kenya with James Turner, Nathan Lawson (also scored the team’s other try from the opening game) & Brumbies regular Corey Toole sharing the pie of tries being scored.

Plus, hats off to Dietrich Roache on his spotless conversion kicks through the two sticks. Keep an eye on him as their main man when the Aussie Men’s 7s team is set to get tested a bit tougher on the speedometer but we’ve got some of our experienced backline that can cause the opposition trouble starting with Argentina tonight.

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Other Sports

Thoughts on Mark “Tubby” Taylor set to commentate on the Diving events for Nine very soon for the Summer Olympics in Paris

by Sports Benches

Well, one of the ex-cricketers will be onboard for Nine’s Olympics coverage for Paris in France very soon – which will begin just less than 30 days from now. Now it won’t be Mark Nicholas who presented the London highlights program back in 2012 since they don’t have the Australian summer of cricket rights anymore nor would Michael Slater be coming back in the media either since his personal life hasn’t been great in recent years after being axed from Seven’s current cricket coverage. He too called the diving events there just for that one at the same time. Instead, here comes former opening batsman, regular WWOS show panellist and Longtime Nine stalwart Mark “Tubby” Taylor as he is now set for an Olympics gig of his own by commentating the Diving events, which was just announced this earlier morning on the weekly Wide World of Sports magazine program.

It remains to be seen if he will be calling from the studio in Sydney or be on-site alongside some other reporting assignments either by himself or with an expert. But hey, I didn’t know Diving and Cricket were a great match when it comes to the physicality as well as jump and aerial landing up high like Tubby used to do when looking to catch these balls back at slip during his playing days – same goes to Michael Slater as well & both of them were also Openers & slip fielders too. When it comes to the real diving contest though, you will have to face your fears from a couple metres by perfecting your technique (not from the side but almost like a backflip after you jump a bit like gymnastics through water) that applies to all other sports.

Anyways, great to hear that Tubby will back in commentary at least on TV for a bit – having done so during The Ashes in England last year for Sky Sports when Nine still had the rights there. Surely, that arrangement is expected to continue when Nine will be back in 2027 and 2031. Don’t forget Cricket (T20s) will be an Olympic sport once more come 2028 in Los Angeles, USA and he could be perfectly positioned as the network’s Olympic cricket expert. Too early to say but could see Nine either forming a group of their own commentators around him or send Tubby as part of the World Feed OBS commentary team on-site like we’ve seen before in a similar arrangement with Sky Sports for The Ashes in England as well as ICC-sanctioned events.

If that wasn’t enough, you can still hear Tubby commentating the Australian Summer of Cricket via the radio on Triple M every November-January alongside fellow WWOS panellist Gus Worland. Make sure you keep an eye out on Tubby for the Diving throughout the two-week games across Nine, 9Gem and 9Now from Saturday July 27 to Saturday August 10.

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