A sudden-death Dan Bibby try edged Team GB past Argentina and into the Rio 2016 rugby sevens semi finals last night.
Great Britain had earlier progressed as pool C winners after an impressive second-half rearguard action held off New Zealand, but with the experienced Argentines lying in wait in the last eight, they knew they would need to produce some of their best form to progress.
South west London-based Tom Mitchell, Marcus Watson and the aforementioned-Bibby were all named in the starting seven.
The two sides were evenly-matched, with a tense, cagey encounter remaining scoreless at half-time.
A burst from James Davies almost broke the deadlock with four minutes to go, but he stumbled in the Argentine 22 and was bought down by a relieved defender just yards from the line.
With a minute to go, a yellow card for Juan Imhoff for a dangerous tackle gave GBÂ the opportunity to attack a six-man Argentina, but they couldn’t take advantage, with Davies sin-binned for a high tackle.
Argentina missed the resulting penalty, which would have taken them through and extinguished British hopes.
With the final score 0-0, the match entered golden-point extra time, with the next team to score victorious.
With both sides back up to their full complement, Team GB were awarded a penalty, which Wandsworth-resident Mitchell stepped up to.
He was mere inches away from sending GB through, slamming the kick against the post.
The men in red didn’t dwell on the disappointment, with British pressure forcing an Argentinian knock-on from the rebound.
At long last, the tie was settled from the resulting scrum, with Bibby storming through the remnants of the exhausted Argentinian defence to send GB into ecstasy and leave the devastated South Americans in tears.
Next up for Great Britain, who are competing as a united team for the first time in Rio, is South Africa in today’s semi-final at 7pm, with the final at 11pm.
With New Zealand and Australia both eliminated from contention yesterday, and Fiji and Japan meeting in the other semi, Team GB now have a golden chance to claim Olympic glory.
