Minneapolis native Bender experiences rugby Olympic-style

RIO DE JANEIRO – Garrett Bender walked off the pitch with blood caked beneath his nose, his padded cap askew, one ear trapped against his skull like a mouse in a trap.

"I'm fine," he said. "I've just got a big nose. It gets in the way sometimes. I wear the hat to hold my hair down, honestly. It kind of suits my play, honestly. I kind of like to put my head in there."

Someday Bender will tell stories about his Olympic experience, about leaving the football program at St. Cloud State after one year to embark on a winding path to Rio. On Wednesday afternoon, all he could think of were printable euphemisms for how he felt.

Bender and the United States rugby team fell to top-ranked Fiji 24-19, the loss eliminating the U.S. from medal contention. Had the Americans managed one more point they would have advanced to the quarterfinals.

Close losses to Argentina and the formidable Fijians kept them from their goals. Later on Wednesday, the U.S. beat Brazil 24-12. The Americans will play Spain on Thursday for ninth place.

"Fiji always plays us strong, and we always give them a good game," Bender said. "Every time we've played them this season it's been close.

"We made a couple of dumb mistakes, had a few missed tackles; there was one of mine there at the end. I'm pretty frustrated about it. But that's sevens. A bounce of the ball and that's the game."

Rugby sevens is the faster, shorter, more wide-open version of the game. Bender was a star linebacker at Washburn High. He played one season at St. Cloud State, then went back to rugby, playing on the same Minneapolis club — the Youngbloodz — as fellow Olympian Katie Johnson.

Bender played against the best on Wednesday. Fiji has been the world's top-ranked sevens team the past two seasons. Rugby is the national game in Fiji, enabling a Pacific archipelago with fewer than a million people to excel in it.

The Americans pride themselves on physical play, but the Fijians looked even bigger and faster, even with New England Patriots defensive back Nate Ebner on the U.S. side.

"They've obviously got way more funding than us, and they've got overseas coaching, they were obviously aiming for a medal in the Olympic Games," said Fiji coach Ben Ryan, a former coach of the English national team. "But we're the best team in the world in the last two years, and thankfully we've carried that form into the Olympics."

How does Fiji do it? "National game, the genetics of our players, the framework that we train in, the program that we put in the last two years," Ryan said. "It went from my first day on the island to not getting paid for five months to not having petrol to have a full-time program."

Fiji players make about $6,000 a year playing for the national team. Four Fijians play overseas; Ryan said Olympic exposure could lead to more income for many of his players.

"We do this with very little money," Ryan said. "We do have the government behind us and the nation behind us and it is our national sport. So the very best athletes in Fiji will be playing rugby sevens.

"When they're in training camp they're with us, nothing else. It's like national service. So if you're working in an office and you get called up by me then they have to give you time off and you have to go and train in sevens. We've got prison wardens, hotel porters, policemen, a whole host of things. Unemployed, working on farms with their families, sugar cane farmers. Half of our players left school at 15, but as you can see they are geniuses on the field. Their IQs are very high on that patch of ground."

Mike Bender, Garrett's father, took in the game from the stands, and will stick around to see the Americans try to win less meaningful games.

"He's really proud of me," Bender said. "I wish we would have given him something better to cheer for."

Jim Souhan's podcast can be heard at MalePatternPodcasts.com. On Twitter: @SouhanStrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com