After years of training, planning and counting down, this was the official competition start of the Paris 2024 Games, and it was the perfect start for the 2024 Australian Olympic Team. 

Australia looked in control early, but a wayward pass near halfway resulted in an intercept try to Samoan Motu Opetai, and Australia was trailing 0-7 after three minutes. 

Matt Gonzalez replaced Corey Toole after the try, and the Aussies dug deep to focus on bouncing back.  

As expected, the Samoan defence was strong yet the Australians managed to build the pressure down the left-hand wing. Just before half-time Henry Hutchison broke through to score under the black dot and Dietrich Roache converted to level the match 7-7.  

Henry, and captain Nick Malouf, became Australia’s first three-time Olympians in Rugby Sevens in this match, a few days ahead of their female counterparts.

“The first game's always the most nervous, but I thought we settled in pretty nicely into that game. It was a bit frantic at the start,” Henry said.

“Samoa came out hot and that was a really tough game, but we got better and better. Hopefully we can build into the next game with the back end of our performance.”

The second half started with more big hits. James Turner came on for Corey and shortly after Nathan Lawson had a brilliant break down the left touch to run around and score, handing another easy conversion for Dietrich. With three minutes remaining it was 14-7 and it was tense.

Australia then capitalised on an out of line mistake from Samoa, Henry ran around the defence and the Samoans fell for the dummy. Another easy conversion and 21-7 with one minute remaining.

There were plenty of Aussies and families in the stands but the Samoans got the biggest cheers. They didn’t give up and scored in the final seconds with a big overlap on the right wing for a final score of 21-14 to Australia.

“It's a pretty special crowd out there. It was pretty unreal running out and I think it's gonna get even better tonight,” Henry said.

“You know, Stade de France is a fantastic stadium and the French love their rugby and people have come from all around the world to watch us play, so we wanna put on a show.”

The Australian 21-14 victory in Pool B sets up a sensational second match later today against Kenya. The Africans were level with Argentina in the second half before Argentina ran away with the match 31-12.

The second match starts 3am AEST.

Andrew Reid