Earlier this month, the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup was staged in Dubai in what was the IRB's first ever officially sanctioned women's sevens tournament.

It was a major milestone for the sport on the road to Rio 2016 and Carty explained the tournament was part of the historic new IRB Women's Rugby Plan which was publically launched this week.

The Women's Rugby Plan is the first programme of its kind and focuses on enhancing the position of women's rugby as one of the world's fastest growing sports as well as a sport accessible for all ages and abilities.

"Having rugby sevens on the programme at the Rio 2016 Olympics is obviously huge for us and it provides us with a fantastic opportunity to take the women's game forward across the world," Carty told insidethegames.

"It is very exciting and to fully capitalise on the opportunity; we have now developed a clear policy with our Member Unions to focus on elite women's competition ahead of Rio 2016.

"Dubai was very significant first step for us on the road to Rio because it was the IRB's first officially sanctioned women's sevens tournament.

"The great thing about women's sevens is that it is relatively new and therefore there is no dominant force in the game.

"Canada won the tournament in Dubai [beating England 26-7] and that is great because it shows that the new countries can really emerge to challenge for Olympic gold in Rio.

"Women's rugby sevens really is an open playing field and with a prize as big as the Olympics, it is a great opportunity for all countries to really look at the sport as one that they can medal at."


Carty added that the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup in Dubai must now be used as a building block heading into Rio to ensure that the game maximises on the opportunity provided by the Olympics.

"Dubai was fantastic but clearly we need more events on the women's rugby sevens calendar," she said.

"We have a series of women's sevens events that we are set to hold alongside the men's HSBC Sevens World Series in 2012 to help prepare elite players for Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 in Moscow and ultimately the Olympic Games in 2016.

"Another part of our new strategy is to support Member Unions to deliver the best possible elite programmes.

"To do this the IRB recently held the first High Performance Workshop for women's rugby.

"These saw unions from around the world take part in a three-day seminar to learn how to design and implement an effective high performance pathway.

"So we think we are now really developing the tools to capitalise on the Olympics."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
December 2011: Canadian women make rugby history as they win in Dubai