Wales referee Ben Breakspear had the perfect view of the defending champions opening game, giving a commanding performance with the whistle when Fiji crushed Uruguay 40-12.
Fiji reminded everyone exactly why they have two golds to their name on the opening day of the men’s rugby sevens competition at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, beating Uruguay and USA to book their place in the medal quarter-finals.
Fiji’s opening game was immediately after a raucous and fanatic home crowd saw France draw 12-12 with USA.
“When we came out, it was bouncing, it was a pretty special feeling,” said Breakspear who follows fellow Welsh referees Adam Jones and Craig Evans to have refereed at the Olympics.
Jones and Evans however didn’t have the honour of officiating in front of an audience as they were in Tokyo during the pandemic so weren’t able to experience the carnival atmosphere in St Dennis, Paris.
“When running out behind the teams I just wanted to try and enjoy the moment really – there was a lot of hard work in getting there so I was just trying to enjoy it and take it all in. We all take rugby pretty seriously at times, so it was nice just to take the breaks off and enjoy it for what it was,” said Breakspear.
“Craig and Adam went to Tokyo when there were no crowds which was unfortunate for them but it was still the same achievement for them but to ref in front of a full stadium was pretty special.”
The flamboyant Fijians bring plenty of razzmatazz to any sevens event and Breakspear enjoyed his moment in the spotlight.
“It’s always tough when you are refereeing, you get stuck into your own world, it’s quite hard to appreciate what’s going on around you. it’s not until you can sit back and look back and see how good they were.
“Going into that game as defending champions it was pretty special to referee them first up and knowing what they bring, it’s always good to be involved in those type of games.”
The sevens competition kicked off the Olympics
Breakspear will be on touch for tomorrow’s round of matches before finding out what matches he will be involved in at the quarter-finals stage.
“When you come to events like this it’s the same as a World Cup – there is only one gold medal match and there are 12 [referees] of us here,” he explained.
“Sometimes you expect to get big games but the appointment doesn’t come so for me it’s taking every game in my stride and making sure I do my job, referee well and see where that takes me.
“I feel I had a pretty strong start and laid down the foundations so I’m hoping to build on that for the rest of the tournament.”
