Rio KO for Sonny Bill after Japan shock New Zealand in Olympic men’s rugby sevens

Sonny Bill Williams has been ruled out of the rest of the Rio Olympics after suffering an injury in New Zealand’s shock defeat to Japan yesterday.

The New Zealand star was hurt during his team’s shock 14-12 defeat against Japan on day one of the men’s rugby sevens tournament at Deodoro Stadium.

The New Zealand Olympic Team announced that Williams had suffered a “partial Achilles rupture” and has been replaced by Sione Molia. The 31-year-old’s tournament exit is a major blow for New Zealand and the competition as men’s sevens rugby makes its Olympics bow.

Williams is one of rugby’s biggest names, offering box-office potential, and he was among New Zealand’s star performers when they won the Rugby World Cup last autumn.

But he now faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines as New Zealand look to regroup following a miserable opening result.

New Zealand are in the same group as Great Britain, with the countries due to meet today ahead of potential quarter-final ties later that day.

Japan caused arguably the greatest upset in rugby sevens history by claiming a stunning 14-12 win against New Zealand at Deodoro Stadium. The result mirrors last autumn’s Rugby World Cup, when a Japan team coached by current England supremo Eddie Jones beat South Africa 34-32 in Brighton.

Japan player Lomano Lemeki described the latest feat as “unbelievable” after New Zealandwere floored.

Japan took an early lead through a try from Teruya Goto that Lemeki converted, but that was the cue for an immediate response.

Scott Curry and Akira Ioane collected touchdowns either side of half-time, but Japan would not buckle and secured a famous victory through Kameli Soejima’s try that Katsuyuki Sakai converted.

“It is unbelievable,” said Lemeki.

“You never see a minnow come here and beat a team which is supposed to be a gold medal contender. I am still shocked, to be honest.

“As we played on, we started getting more confident and New Zealand started to struggle a bit.

“We thought if we kept moving the ball around, the big guys would tire somewhere, and they eventually did.

“We had a gameplan against New Zealand — play at our pace, and they would get frustrated.”

Great Britain and Kenya are also in Japan’s group, and, asked if his team could progress deep into the three-day tournament, Lemeki said: “I think we can, after we showed that any team can win.

“We need to keep working hard, and I am sure we will.”

A thrilling opening round of fixtures also saw a highly fancied US team lose 17-14 to Argentina, while Australia came unstuck 31-14 against France.