Aspull's Dan Bibby has urged administrators to give rugby sevens the respect and investment it deserves after Team GB narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in Tokyo.
Five years after a surprise silver medal in Rio, simply getting to Tokyo was an achievement for GB, who saw the home nations cut their losses on their sevens programmes because of the pandemic.
That left the team to come up with alternative solutions to make it to Japan, self-funding and training on their own before an injection of cash from the National Lottery.
Even so, it was far from the ideal preparations for the Games, and as he prepares to hang up his boots, Rio silver medallist Bibby called for greater recognition of the value of the sport.
“I hope we’ve done well in terms of how well we’ve showed, even without a programme for five months, we can still contend for the big medal matches," said Bibby, whose match was broadcast live on Eurosport and discovery+.
“But we tried to showcase ourselves as much as we can and show how exciting sevens is. I had a few texts back home from mates with their little boys and girls watching, screaming at the telly saying how fun it is. That makes it for me, that we’re inspiring little boys and girls.
“But unless the unions pull their finger out, it won’t be exciting many people for much longer. It’s up to them now, we’ve shown what we can do. Off little funding, we can do that, so imagine what we can do with actual funding.”
GB had ended the second day of action in euphoric fashion after a comeback win over the USA in the quarter-finals.
However, with skipper Tom Mitchell injured, they struggled to back it up, beaten by New Zealand in the semi-finals before being edged out by Argentina in the bronze-medal match.
Fiji claimed the gold medal, and for Bibby, it was no coincidence that those three ended up on the podium, explaining just how impossible a task it is to compete with the current set-up in the UK.
He said: “If I’m brutally honest, it’s a joke. We’ve been offered eight contracts. Eight contracts is ridiculous. To play against a team like New Zealand with eight boys on not much more than minimum wage, it’s an impossible task.
“If you look at who has done well in this tournament. New Zealand, have had a full programme the entire time, Argentina, full programme the entire time, Fiji, full programme the entire time.
“You can’t compete on this level unless it’s properly funded. I’ve had the best career, nine years of fun, enjoyment, travelling the world and doing what I love, I want to give that to another young 19/20-year-old, to have that experience and have that amazing career.
“I can only do what I can on the pitch, everything else is left to the unions. I hope they look at that and think we’ve got to do something about that.”
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