Oct 09 2009
Rugby Sevens Becomes Olympic Sport
While it might be hidden underneath the news that the Olympics found an excuse to give Tiger Woods a gold medal if he wants one — and really, what else can you get the man who has everything? — the addition of rugby sevens to the 2016 and 2020 Olympics has to be viewed as a big boost for the sport. The only question is whether it will translate into more overall interest in rugby, or just more interest in sevens.
For those of you not familiar with rugby sevens, it’s a 7-on-7 version of rugby union (which is usually 15-on-15) that was created in 1883 in Melrose, Scotland, by Ned Haig, a butcher who was trying to raise money for his local club. It’s played on a full-size pitch with 10-minute halves, which allows an entire tournament to be played in a weekend. Because there are only 7 players per side, the game is much more wide open, so it emphasizes speed over brute strength.
The biggest sevens event is the IRB Sevens World Series, an eight-city affair that runs from December to May. Most of those Sevens World Series events tend to have a party atmosphere, including women dressed in costume, if this Flickr photo set of the New Zealand Sevens is any indication. That should make it a perfect fit for Rio in 2016.
The question remains, though, whether this will make other forms of rugby more popular around the world. The wide open nature of sevens might make some rugby-curious folks look in on something like the Tri-Nations series or the Heineken Cup and decide, “Eh, I like sevens better.” The Sevens World Series could be the only real winner here in the long run.
Then again, perhaps the fact that this will make anyone rugby-curious — and it will — is a win for the code. We’ll have to wait and see, though, what this does for the next Rugby World Cup 2011. I suspect even then, it’ll be too soon to tell.
By the way, the future might belong to China, but with the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, the next decade definitely belongs to Brazil. We need to start learning to speak some Portuguese.
2 Responses to “Rugby Sevens Becomes Olympic Sport”
Rugby is a fantastic sport with a huge worldwide following. Glad that the IOC include it in the Olympics
It’s too bad rugby union (the 15 a side game) was dropped from the Olympics back in the 1920s.
On the plus side: as a result, USA are still the reigning rugby union Olympic gold medal champions.
Back in the 1920’s there was still a bit of rugby played out in California and gridiron hadn’t overspecialized as it has today so it was easier to cross-train players to convert to other codes, so the USA could put together a respectable team back then.
Agree: popularity of rugby sevens won’t automatically convert people to become fans of the XV player game. Rugby union is a very complicated, tactical, defensive game without the kind of constant passing and running that you will see in rugby sevens (or in rugby league).