Tauranga's bronze medal winning beach volleyball brothers say they were inspired by the All Blacks in their medal win tonight.
Sam and Ben O'Dea defeated England's Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf in the third place play-off 21-13 21-15 tonight to claim a Commonwealth Games bronze medal.
Sam said they were spurred on to victory by All Blacks captain Kieran Read.
"My coach told me, that Kieran Read was asked on RNZ what he was most looking forward to watching today, and he said the beach volleyball, so he told me that and I made sure we represented. If the All Blacks were going to watch then we need to play well," Sam told 1 NEWS.
"We always play hard, but it’s a little bit special I think."
Ben says they’ve improved every match of the Games, despite not playing much over the season due to injuries, and Sam being on antibiotics for throat infection this week.
“If we had two more games we probably would’ve had a gold medal. We just keep going up and up.”
Speaking to 1 NEWS after their medal winning performance on the sand, Sam said the highlight of the Games for them has been the atmosphere at the stadium.
“The crowd’s probably the biggest thing, the New Zealand flags and actually even all the Aussies come take pictures with us afterwards.
“So it’s been pretty incredible. The crowd’s been awesome.”
Playing any sport with a sibling, bickering is expected, the O’Dea brothers played together at the end of their junior years and start of their senior years, but got back together after four years apart to earn a spot at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Game.
Both credit their coach and mentor for helping them manage each other.
“We don’t have a gutsful of each other as much as we used to.
“Our coach Markus Diekmann played with his brother throughout his career as well, so he teaches us a lot of things of how to deal with each other, learn how to get over things a little bit faster."
Tonight they plan to celebrate with friends and family who have come to support them.
"It will be really nice to have some dinner with them and celebrate with them because it makes our job a lot easier when they’re here supporting us.
"Sam’s been on antibiotic’s all week with a throat infection, so I don’t think there’ll be too many beers for him, but I might have a couple," joked Ben.
And for the weeks ahead, they plan to head home and take a couple of weeks off to "let it sink in" then reassess and work towards the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
As for their bronze medals...
"Probably turn it into a gold medal next time."
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