Three Welsh players played in the British squads that went to Rio in 2016, with Sam Cross and James Davies returning with silver medals. Jazz Joyce also built a huge reputation for herself in the women’s side that went all the way to the bronze medal match.
In addition, Luke Treharne travelled as a reserve for the men’s team and coaches Gareth Williams (men’s assistant) and Richie Pugh (women’s assistant) also flew the Welsh flag.
There was a concern that Team GB might miss out after both England teams failed to qualify by right via the World Series. England were the nominated qualifying team for the Home Nations, as per 2016.
It meant there was more than a little tension in the air as the England women’s team went to Kazan for the European qualifying tournament and the men head to Colomiers, in France. The women breezed through their opening two pool matches, beating Germany 59-0 and Sweden 50-0, but were beaten to top spot by host nation Russia, who beat them 26-5.
In the knock-out stages they edged out Ireland 17-7, pipped France 14-12 and then gained revenge over the Russians as they beat them 19-0 in the final to book the Team GB ticket to Tokyo.
In the men’s event in Colomiers, England went through the tournament unbeaten. After beating Lithuania 40-0, Georgia 24-7 and Germany 33-7 in their pool they powered past Italy 35-0 in the quarter finals with tries from Harry Glover, Tom Mitchell, Will Muir, Ben Harris and Will Edwards.
Dan Norton, Mike Ellery and Muir put England 17-0 ahead at the break in their semi-final against Portugal before Charlton Kerr and Ben Harris finished things off in a 29-12 win. Norton then raced in for a first-half hat-trick in the final against France to give his side a 21-7 interval lead.
An interception try from Ollie Lindsay-Hague wrapped things up in the second half to give England a convincing 31-7 victory. They now join host nation Japan, reigning champions Fiji, now coached by Welshman Gareth Baber, the United States, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Canada in the Olympic event, with four more qualifiers to be decided.
The women have joined Japan, reigning champions Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Brazil and Canada. There are five teams still to be determined.
