I have just boarded the train from London to Cornwall, the last leg of my return home from an amazing ten days in Rio. The journey gives me time to reflect and to share with you some thoughts on the games. Top of these must be to say what a fantastic welcome the warm, fun loving Carioca people gave us all. The media stories before the games suggesting that we would play to empty venues could not have been more wrong and for the big games and those involving Brazil, the venue was full to its near 13,000 capacity. I am pretty sure that tops London 2012! But it wasn’t just that they were full, they were also alive, colourful and noisy as a largely local Carioca crowd sang, danced and flag waved. It made me quite envious as I would have loved to have had some of that crowd packing BT WWRC15 when we hosted it last year. So a big thank you to Brazil, to Rio, to the Carioca people and to the Rio 2016 organising committee and volunteers who created such a great Games for us.
My next reflection is on the incredible support our team received from families, friends and supporters back home and in Rio itself. A large family and friends group accompanied the team to Rio and it was just great to see them in the stands waving the Union Flag and cheering the team on. Their presence meant a great deal to everyone. A big thank you also to our Chairman Kevin Aitchison and our Patron Jason Leonard who both joined us for the later stages of the tournament. It’s worth remembering that both are volunteers and have to give up some of their holiday allowance to do this. We were also joined out there by a number of VIPs. It was a pleasure to welcome Sports Minister Tracey Crouch who watched the Australia game with me and came back again to see us defeat Brazil. Alison Hoad from advertising agency Campbell Doyle Dye was another fan, as was John Steele Head of Sport at Loughborough and also Bob Latham who is Chairman of USA Rugby and was representing World Rugby. Likewise the messages of support that came from home via social media, emails and calls were just great so thank you, the athletes and staff really appreciated it.
I would also like to mention all the Games’ officials for the rugby tournament but in particular those from GBWR who were in key posts – Richard Allcroft as Technical Delegate oversaw the whole show, Simon Starr who was Head Table Official and Sarah Leighton who was part of the classification team – all did a great job in these very important international positions. And of course a thank you to Paralympics GB and to the IWRF. We missed the IWRF President John Bishop and wish him a speedy recovery but it was good to see Vice President Ken Sowden again who came over from New Zealand.
Next the staff and team. There is a great deal of talk about the ‘best prepared team’. We all know that that preparedness is what Lorraine, Paul, Justin and and the performance area leads have provided day in day out over the four years leading up to the games. It’s a tough job because unlike many jobs, the success or otherwise of all the effort is immediately apparent in the results. In absolute terms we went to Rio ranked 5th in the world and we have returned as 5th in the world but anyone who watched GB play will know that this benchmark masks an incredible performance gain. I said in my last blog that the draw was not favourable to us with Australia and Canada to play as our opening games. Yet we lost to Australia by just 2 points – and reflect that Australia went on to win gold, and I know that Brad the Australian coach would not mind me sharing his comment to me that we really gave them a scare in that opening game. As for Canada, we lost this game in the last second of extra time by one point, that despite leading Canada by 4 points in Q3. I think that with a little more experience and just a little luck on the day and we would have gone through but it was not to be. It says a great deal for the professionalism and spirit of the team that they were able to come out the next day and put 20 points on Brazil and even more significantly the day after that defeat Sweden 56-42 to take 5th spot. Just over a year ago we beat Sweden by only 1 point to take the European title. It is unfortunate that the tournament is structured in the way it is as we would have relished the opportunity to play quarter finals and we would have loved a chance at USA and Japan.
I cannot hide our immense disappointment that we could not break through this time but we have to get over that and use this experience to move on. Our Patron Jason Leonard spoke with the team after the games and reflected on the England Rugby team in 1999 when it was heavily defeated by South Africa in the quarter finals and yet came back 4 years later to win the cup against hosts Australia in extra time. Likewise almost the same England team that went out of the 2015 world cup in the group stages went to Australia less than a year later and won all three tests. In both cases the teams gained from their defeats, coming back more experienced, more aware and more determined to win. The GB team is a young, hungry and immensely talented team. My own view is that we are also the most balanced of the top teams and we will be looking to add further to this by getting a 3.5 into the squad. So disappointed yes, mostly for the athletes, Paul, Justin and Lorraine, but also immensely proud of what has been achieved. The squad can hold their heads high and know that they have made us all feel proud.
And finally, congratulations to all of the teams who took part and especially Australia who came away with the gold after the most incredible final with the USA who they defeated in the final second of extra time. It was a fantastic performance from both teams. Also well done to Japan who won the bronze medal for the first time. They are going to be a force to reckon with in Tokyo next time!
David Pond
