2 years before Olympic Games hosts 7s rugby: What are the locals saying?

by Frederic Wale Tuesday 5 August 2014

It is now two years before we see Sevens Rugby at the Rio Olympics. It is going to be special.

The city is still recovering from the Football World Cup and we though it would be useful to see and hear what the locals are currently talking about. Are they talkingrugbyunion?

1) Two difficult dates to swallow for the Brazilians - the 1950 defeat to Uruguay in the finals of the World Cup in Rio de Janeiro and the 2014 semi-final loss to Germany by 7 to 1 - some will say this result explains the state of the Brazilian economy - in other words 7% inflation and 1% growth...

2) It cost Brazil $US 35 billion to put this cup together and Germany won it - but it could have been a lot worse for Brazil. If Argentina had won they would have claimed that not only the Pope is Argentinean, but the way Messi played in the finals, it would have been the hand of God (again!) to pull that one off...

3) However, what does remain for all to see is the $US 1 billion new Maracana stadium with its almost 80,000 seating capacity...

4) ... and its fibreglass panels which offer not just a high tech look but act as solar systems to activate the main lifts and the rain that is channeled into the below tanks supplies 50% of the water needed for the turf and the showers.

It is a good thing no one ran the numbers of this little extravaganza or else we would have had to be somewhat patient in order to recover the investment in the hope that we get enough sunshine and rain during the next 1000 years - but not too much of one or the other so that the stadium doesn't run out of water or the fans stay stuck in the lifts!!!

5) What is the common denominator with both these players? They both ran for about 5 minutes during the whole cup and one was awarded the trophy for best player of the tournament and the other is still bathing in glory from that winning goal against Argentina - moral of the story God is most likely Argentinean but didn't want to make it look too obvious!!