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RIO DE JANEIRO -- Itll be a first for women, and the first time in 92 years for the sport when the Olympic rugby sevens tournament kicks off with a match between France and Spain on Saturday.Rugby sevens was added to the program for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, sparking accelerated growth in the abbreviated version of the sport. Despite the burgeoning global participation, the first Olympic rugby gold medal since the men played the last of the 15-a-side tournaments in 1924 is likely to go to one of the sports traditional powers, with New Zealand and world series winner Australia favored to reach the final.The 12 teams each play three group matches, with the top eight advancing to the quarterfinals on Sunday afternoon. The final is set for Monday, and the mens tournament runs for the following three days.CHERRY READY?: The Australians are likely to give former world player of the year Emilee Cherry until the last minute to prove her fitness after she strained a hamstring in a practice session early in the week.Australia opens with matches against Colombia and Fiji on Saturday, and meets the United States on Sunday.Cherry participated in some light training on Friday and head coach Tim Walsh said there were positive signs.Shes a lot better today so were seeing how she progresses whether we play her tomorrow or not, Walsh said. Shes taken a lot of steps forward last night and had some pretty intensive physio so her strength is coming back.TIMING THE RUN: The long-time top-ranked New Zealand womens team finished a distant second to Australia in the world series this season. But the New Zealanders said the Olympics is the biggest prize of the year and their preparations were geared toward it.Now that the time has arrived, the New Zealanders arent backing away from that.New Zealand coach Sean Horan said having rugby sevens on the Olympic program had a dramatic impact on the development of the global game, particularly for women.Weve created something brand new. And the reason why were all sitting up here and were professional athletes and staff and is that the game is an Olympic sport now, Horan said, explaining the emphasis on Rio rather than the world series. The learnings weve got from the 2015-16 (world) series would be, we came second to a pretty good Australian team.We took some great (lessons) ... and grown.New Zealand plays Kenya in its first match.UNSTOPPABLE: Jillion Potter of the United States missed the 2010 World Cup because of a serious neck injury, and had to sit out the 2014-15 womens sevens world series after being diagnosed with cancer and needing eight months of treatment. On Saturday, shell be an Olympian.Potter beat the Stage III synovial sarcoma in time to return to Olympic training and is one of the more inspirational stories of the games.The U.S. women play Fiji and Colombia on Saturday, and are expecting to be vying for one of the top two spots in the group when they play Australia on Sunday.AIMING HIGH: The Canadian women won the last stop in the world series, beating top-ranked Australia in the final, and placing third overall. That makes them a good shot at a medal.Veteran Kelly Russell kept her reply brief when asked what medal the Canadians should be targeting: Gold.First things first. The Canadians have a battle to top Pool C, which also contains Britain, host Brazil and Japan.UNITED BRITAIN: Britain qualified for the womens Olympic sevens tournament based on Englands performances on the world stage, and the team was always likely to be dominated by England players. Welsh winger Jasmine Joyce earned selection, ensuring it wasnt a full English dozen.Emily Scarratt, who helped England win the 2014 World Cup in the 15-a-side format, said her squad is in Rio with ambitions.We know if we play the way that we can and are capable of, we can really come away with something, Scarratt told Britains Press Association. Weve been through high pressure situations and through the long campaigns in terms of still peaking at the end. Dennis Smith Youth Jersey . 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MANCHESTER, England -- It has been another fraught, headline-grabbing spell away with Englands national team for Wayne Rooney.Once again, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho must pick up the pieces.Rooney is back under Uniteds control after having been forced to apologize for some late-night revelry while on England duty, when he was pictured -- in his England training gear -- looking bleary-eyed at a wedding reception at the team hotel on Saturday.Rooney was criticized by the English Football Associations chief executive, Martin Glenn, for not setting the right tone as England captain, and the strikers conduct has sparked a fresh wave of negative publicity toward a player who has shown erratic behavior on and off the field earlier in his career.Mourinho said Rooney has been hurt by the negativity toward him.Even if you have or if you build a kind of wall around you to try to feel protected from what people write about you or think about you, the comments people make about you, the wall has always points of fragility, Mourinho said. It has always some little holes.And we are not still, we are flesh and blood. So I think it has an effect.Mourinho must be starting to dread Rooney going away with the national team. Two months ago, the United manager said Rooney came back from England duty a different person than when he left after fierce media criticism that he received after his performance in a World Cup qualifying match against Slovakia.Honestly, I think there was a Wayne before the Slovakia-England and a Wayne after Slovakia-England, Mourinho said at the time.Now, Mourinho faces another fight to get Rooney mentally right,, at a time when the striker had got his place back in both Uniteds and Englands team after a spell of poor form.ddddddddddddSometimes (players) come back stronger than when they left us because something positive happens there -- good performances, good results, Mourinho said. Other times, injuries, sometimes big injuries. Other times frustrations because they didnt play, because the result was bad.In this case we know what didnt go well, but the national team is a different chapter and a chapter that is closed now until March.Mourinho suggested that the England management take better care of Rooney next time he is away with the national team. There were reports in the British media that Mourinho felt let down by the FA for allowing Rooney to stay up late and drink alcohol.I learned since I was a kid, if someone lends me something, I have to take care even better than if it was mine, Mourinho said. You know, your friend lent you a pencil, you have to take care of the pencil better than if it was your pencil.So I think when one day if I become a national-team manager, I will try -- try, I am not saying that I will be successful on that -- ... to build something to protect what is not yours.Mourinho also said he feels Rooney has been unfairly singled out for criticism.If you go one by one to see where these 23 (England) players were, the Portuguese coach added, some of them were in worse places than the hotel bar.Rooneys first game back for United is against Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday. ' ' '