Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Rugby Sevens gets accepted into the Olympics for 2016

Monday, October 12, 2009

Rugby Sevens gets accepted into the Olympics for 2016

After many years of campaigning, it was announced on Friday that Rugby has finally been accepted into the Olympic Games, for the first time since 1924. Following a 20 minute International Rugby Board presentation in Copenhagen, it was announced that Rugby Sevens received an overwhelming 81-8 votes.

IRB secretary general Mike Miller and President Bernard Lapasset argued that the inclusion of sevens in the Olympics would help broaden the spread of countries that could win medals, grow the sport in new territories, and would appeal to sponsors and fans.

Lapasset was helped out in the final push by former captain of Argentina Agustin Pichot, Women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens winning captain Cheryl Swoon of Australia, Kenyan Sevens captain Jumphrey Kayange, Anatassiya Khamaova, a top Kazakhstan female player, and the legend himself, Jonah Lomu of New Zealand.

"This is a historic moment for our sport and for the global Rugby community, who were united in support of our campaign," said IRB President Lapasset.

"We are excited and honoured to be joining the Olympic Games and I would like to thank the IOC members for believing in our Olympic vision and our values and recognising that Rugby Sevens is a perfect fit for the Olympic Games."

"The Olympic Games will be the pinnacle of the sport for all our athletes and the Rugby family. The best men's and women's players in the world are excited to be able to showcase their talent on the world's greatest sporting stage."

"We are now looking forward to working in partnership with the IOC to develop and implement a Rugby Sevens tournament in Rio that will reach out to new audiences and inspire a new generation of sports fans around the world," added Lapasset.

According to sources, the Olympic Sevens competition (in Rio De Janiero in 2016) will replace the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament as the main event of the seven-a-side game.

Footage from the announcement wasn't too interesting, so we're posting the second of the two videos made by the IRB to promote getting Sevens into the Olympics. Brilliant.

Time: 02:40

Awesome for the game! It'll hopefully lead to further growth worldwide.

Golf though? hmm. lol

By Dave, at October 13, 2009 9:54 am
Inspirational clip. Love that tune in the background.

By Anonymous, at October 13, 2009 9:56 am
Great news !

A few words about the history of 7s here :
http://bit.ly/3bKaOY

And an old video about the final of 1924 olympic games in Paris(USA b France)(I found it at the flea market and posted it on YouTube)
http://bit.ly/ACibR

By Frederic, at October 13, 2009 10:16 am
About time ! Stupid games like beach volleyball seem to make their way but proper sports like Rugby are sidelined....come on mr olympics, wake up

By Johann, at October 13, 2009 10:21 am
Wow, that clip made me want to go play sevens.
Amazing what a good backing track can do.

By Tommo, at October 13, 2009 10:23 am
I wonder who voted against its inclusion

By Phil, at October 13, 2009 11:33 am
Im wondering how some teams will be done....namely England, Ireland, Scotland etc.....because in the olympics everyone has their own country USA, AUS, etc but England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, etc who all have their own rugby teams and rugby 7's teams will have to merge to form GBR.... right? or am i wrong?

not that im bothered just interested more than anything.

By No.7, at October 13, 2009 11:36 am
I was first to comment on this video.

Anyways 7s isn't rugby, and shouldn't have made the Olympics... rugby isn't all about tries every 10 seconds. Lets hope it gets kicked out again.

By Olly, at October 13, 2009 12:02 pm
Olly, go argue with your highschool (if that) friends. Grow up buddy.

Quit being so ignorant about the code of the game that produced legends of fifteen man rugby. Sevens is a feeder for 'proper' rugby. It's not trying to compete with it at all.

Ask any pro player and they'll tell you that Sevens has enhanced their basic skills and is a highly valuable part of player development.

If you're a prop (which you'd have to be to hate sevens), well then you might disagree of course.

By FrankyH, at October 13, 2009 12:12 pm
Ok, here's the thing. 7s is better than rugby league, but ultimately i don't really care about it. I'm a proud South African (WORLD CHAMPIONS BABY) but even with the dominance of our boys in the 7s I wouldnt go out of my way to watch it. It's very blah... maybe if they take it seriously and stick the top players in when it comes to the olympics I'd care. You know, Piere Spiese, Bryan Habananana, JP Pieterson, Lion Mapu, KanKo, it'd be AWESOME BIA DANKE YO.

By BOER, at October 13, 2009 12:18 pm
Why would Olympics accept Golf? Sorry, Tiger, no $10 million for you. What's that? You're not interested? OK, then, bye. OH!?! What? Olympic Golf no longer has any credibility? Darn. You seen the parallels with rugby? If we don't use our top guys, then we're not trying our hardest. See what I mean? Then it cheapens the Olympics, No?

By Ches Nut Acorn, at October 13, 2009 12:22 pm
Olly are you serious? Why are you even on this site? Go back to what ever football website you like so much, and stay your butt of the rugby sites.

By Hendrick, at October 13, 2009 1:24 pm
no. 7, i'd say that england, scotland and wales will form a lions-esque GBR team, with the obvious exception of ireland who will have a team of their own. as it stands, athletes from northern ireland can participate in the olympics either for team IRE or team GBR, i reckon that's how it'll end up with 7s.

By paddy2392, at October 13, 2009 3:59 pm
So will pro rugby players be stopped from competing similar to boxing?

If not, I can see a serious stink happening in the Olympic year, with all the big names trying to shoulder their way into the national team, replacing the lads that have been in the team for the other three years..

I think that the Olympics would have serious problems dealing with the rules and some of the occurrences of the 15 man game. So 7's is the way forward, the 13 man game sucks.

By Anonymous, at October 13, 2009 4:37 pm
Whether or not you like Sevens, can we agree that having it in the Olympics will increase exposure to the sport and could result in more people playing the game, whether it's 7's or 15's? Isn't that the point? If having 7's in the Olympics results in more people playing the game, increased exposure, people knowing what we know - that rugby is the greatest game on earth - would it be worth it?

By realrugby, at October 13, 2009 4:58 pm
I cryed........couldn't help myself. What a vid, embodies what rugby is all about. We may have our differences and some of us are still pathetic enough to disrespect and begrudge each other with petty comments, but we can all agree, this is the best sport on the planet, and it uneites us all in that sense, as it'll hopefully do to others around the world when the get exposed to sevens, and therefore rugby!!!

By Alexander, at October 13, 2009 5:23 pm
realrugby, I'd agree. Here in the States, it's hard to come by 7's rugby (does it even exist here?). So, if someone saw rugby in the Olympics, regardless of what kind was being played, found it interesting and wanted to play, they'd go out and most likely join a 15's team. That's pretty much all there is, and there's a club in almost any major city or college town. So in any case, it's good exposure for rugby as long as it's done right.

By gabe, at October 13, 2009 5:45 pm
Amazing vid, the perfect promotion for our sport and its values. Can't prevent myself to compare it with the disgaceful romaninan brawl video up it...

Can't wait to see the seven at the Olympics, great work from the IRB who managed to be choosen. Bernard Lapasset (the french director, at the end of the vid) seems to be doing better job that when he was leading the french rugby federation!

By Totor07, at October 13, 2009 10:29 pm
Brilliant video, have to agree with you Alexander, i was close to shedding a few tears myself. Unfortunate that it never ceases to amaze me how many ignoramauses such as Olly exist in the rugby world.

Canada in 2016 for Bronze!

By Canadian Content, at October 14, 2009 1:30 am
I think this is bloody fantastic! Yes, 7s is not as great of a game as 15s but its still a good time to be had, and a blast see in person. Logistically speaking 7s makes so much more sense for the Olympics. No one watches soccer in the Olympics, even basketball is poorly watched until the medal rounds. With so many quick events throughout the Olympics another long form team sport isn't realistic. But 7s will bring an exciting world to Americans who barely know rugby exists, let alone anything about how amazing the game is. That will, I believe, lead to increased interest in all things rugby, including 15s! BRILLIANT!

By K_Lu, at October 14, 2009 4:50 am
K-Lu, you are talking sense, and I agree with everyone that exposure to the game, increased interest and participation etc are good things which should come out of this.
Was interesting to see various professional rugby stars on the video - does that mean that they are expecting that other professionals like themselves will take part?

By Phil, at October 14, 2009 4:44 pm
To Gabe - exactly. What are all these new rugby players going to do, go out and join their local 7's only club? No. They go join their 15's team which plays 7's during the summer. This is the point. This is why everyone's so fired up about this. Watching that video, you want everyone to know how awesome Rugby is. This isn't to promote 7's, it's to promote Rugby, period. They would have put 15's in there if the format would have worked, but 7's fits in perfectly.

By realrugby, at October 14, 2009 5:05 pm
This will mean millions and millions of dollars of govt funding from countries who don't even play rugby at the moment being put into the sports development. In Russia for example, schools only play Olympic sports. Rugby will now be played in schools across Russia.
This is massive for the development of the game.
And of course the players will not be amatuers, it's not 1915.
It'll be the world's best players, who wouldn't want to play at the Olympics.

By Bill, at October 15, 2009 12:50 am
Sevens players on the IRB World Series circuit are certainly professional, at least with the bigger countries anyway.

I know the Springbok sevens side get paid pretty well, and some of them have provincial contracts too (ie: sharks, cheetahs etc), so they're doing alright.

So they're travelling the world, playing an awesome, exciting form of the game, and getting paid well to do it. If that's not inspirational for youngsters then I dont know what is.

Having said that, anyone who's ever attempted to play sevens at a club training session or tournament will know that it's INCREDIBLY demanding. So these guys deserve everything they get.

2016 is going to be helluva exciting. The only problem I might have with it is that at times the Sevens results are a bit random. You have your top 5 countries ie: NZ, SA, Fiji, England, Samoa.. but in the top 3 it can be a flip of the coin that wins it. The next day they could play again, and it would be a different winner. So gold for that might not be ideal.

anyway, awesome. Rather in that out I always say. :P

By Shaft, at October 17, 2009 8:38 am
Paddy2392, I didn't realise that NI citizens could compete with Eire.

A GB squad would be great, but I hope that like in football they don't pull out because they can't agree on a team/manager/players etc.

By Anonymous, at October 17, 2009 11:55 am
ireland would have their own team because they are not part of great britain

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