According to David Wallechinsky in his definitive book The Complete Book of the Olympics, “After two French players were injured, the US team was booed and hissed the remainder of the game. Fighting broke out in the stands and Gideon Nelson, an art teacher from Illinois, was knocked unconscious after being hit in the face with a walking stick.” The US national anthem was also booed and the American team had to be escorted from the field by police.

Rugby’s growth internationally was hampered by its subsequent exclusion from the Games, with its next global competition, the World Cup, only being held for the first time as late as 1987. Recently, the International Rugby Board (IRB) has been eager to expand the number of countries taking the sport seriously. Last July, its official report claimed that it was “stuck in a ghetto” by failing to become truly global.

The report, ‘Putting Rugby First’, co-authored by lawyer Quentin Smith, the chairman of English premiership club Sale, pointed out that of the 33 million people who watched the 2007 World Cup final between South Africa and England, 97 per cent came from the eight founding members, namely the four nations in the British Isles, France, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

The report made getting the sport back in the Olympics a priority. However, instead of promoting the proper 15-a-side game, the IRB has been keen to push rugby sevens, which has been included in events such as the Commonwealth Games, in which most of the traditional strong countries in the sport take part. And from June 15, in Lausanne, it will try to persuade the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board that it should now be included in the 2016 Games.

The IRB may be reluctant to allow the 15-a-side game to be again part of the Olympics because it might fear that would take away from the interest in the quadrennial World Cup, which is its main revenue earner. However, what everyone knows in rugby, is that seven-a-side is not just the second-best form of the sport. It is a very, very long way behind in interest compared to the 15-a-side version.

In most countries, which take the sport seriously, sevens is used as a useful training exercise, leading to some diverting tournaments, often staged in Britain at the end of the season. However, it is not the real thing, just as five-a-side football is not the real thing compared to 11-a-side.
 

Even in Britain, where rugby was invented, where sevens has a long history, and where there are more players than in any other country in the world, sevens is of little interest. The IRB proclaimed on its website in April that the IRB World Cup sevens in Dubai was “broadcast to 760 million people in 141 countries.”

Really? Well, let us look at the figures for Britain, where the event was not on terrestrial television but on Sky, the satellite channel. Its press office reports that on Saturday, March 8, the day when the finals were being staged and naturally the audiences were at their highest, the average viewing figure was 22,000 with a peak of 43,000. I will repeat that…a peak of 43,000. And this in a tournament when Wales won the title and England reached the quarter-finals. There seems quite a gap, doesn’t there, between that confirmed audience and the global figure of 760 million?
 

Despite a request, six days ago, I have been unable to obtain through the IRB representatives in which countries the remaining 759 million viewers came. Did they exist? Sky, incidentally, will regularly get more than 12 times as many viewers for 15-a-side side rugby than for ’sevens’, frequently topping 500,000.

One argument that the IRB is using for including sevens in the Olympics is that the main stadium could then be used for the tournament between the Opening Ceremony and the start of the athletics programme on the Friday of the first week. No events are staged in the main stadium in this period. However, this is a specious point. If the organisers wanted to use the main stadium for those few days, they could easily stage some of the football tournament there.
 

Much of the impetus for including rugby sevens in the Olympics comes from Jacques Rogge, the IOC President whose usual level-headed approach to changes, has been affected on this occasion by the fact that he is a former Belgian rugby international. Other IOC members should not be influenced on this issue by any respect for him.

They have to realise that it is an insult to the Olympic Movement that rugby sevens is being put up for consideration for inclusion in the Games and not the proper 15-a-side game. The IRB should go away and come back with the real thing in four years’ time.

When you want to come to the best party in town, you should wear your best clothes.
 

John Goodbody, a multi award-winning journalist and former rugby correspondent of the London Evening News, has covered the last 11 Summer Olympics. He is the author of the audio book ‘A History of the Olympics'.

Comments


This is an interesting piece but as someone who used to cover
rugby Mr Goodbody should know that it would be impractical for
the IRB to run a tournament involving 15s because the Olympics
takes place over 17 days which would make it impossible for the
players to recover in time.

I believe the sevens format is ideal for the Olympics because it
far more inclusive than the 15s and offers a real opportunities
for countries like Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Kenya to make an impact
on the tournament.
By Nigel Mack, Nairobi

4 June 2009 at 11:53am

The sevens is to rugby what 2020 is to cricket - and look at how
that is taking over the world! It is great entertainment but I'm
not sure it will be taken seriously by the purists.
By Funny shaped balls

5 June 2009 at 19:39pm

Rather than fussing over pure or not so pure rugby... may I
suggest the IOC should focus on a substantially more
"international" game known as squash [rackets]. Squash is played
in over 175 countries and the recent World Squash Day saw
cooperation between squash players in Iran, Egypt, Ireland, New
Zealand, South Africa, Iraq, Pakistan, Malaysia, Mexico, Brazil,
Canada, USA etc. etc. etc. Hard to think a another sport with
such true international ties.
By Jack Farley

5 June 2009 at 20:33pm

Jack is right - squash is already among the most globally
developed of sports. Surely that deserves a place more than a
sport that is hoping to use the Olympics to develop itself,
especially as it is not even taking its main game to the
Olympics. I think rugby sevens is a fabulous game and have
enjoyed myself immensely at the Twickenham Sevens. But I really
don't think it is right for the Olympics.
By Squash fan

8 June 2009 at 13:05pm