Expectations high for Fiji, spiritual home of rugby sevens

TOKYO – Towering hulks of Fijian rugby sevens players kneeling to receive their Olympic gold medals from Princess Anne was one of the most enduring images of the Rio Games.

Whether it was out of humble deference to the British royal or courtesy as she would have struggled to put the be-ribboned golds around the sweaty players’ necks, a dais adding to their extra height, it was an extraordinary moment for Fiji.

The team, coached by Englishman Ben Ryan, had won a first ever Olympic medal, and gold at that, for the South Pacific nation, its population of 890,000 scattered over more than 330 islands.

It was fitting it came in rugby sevens, a sport synonymous with Fiji and the country’s catalogue of off-loading, side-stepping players who,…