Barnaby Harrison

18:43 on Wed 27 May 2009

In the light of today’s announcement that the IRB intends to scrap the sevens world cup in favour of Olympic participation, I would like to hear the seven fans opinions of this. Is it feasible that the two events could run simultaneously or will this lead to the significance of one of the events being devalued?

Read the story here http://ur7s.com/news/251/world_cup_sevens_could_be_shelved_to_bolster_olympic_chances.

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Jim Ross

13:58 on Thu 28 May 2009

Can't say I'm terribly enamoured with the idea of scrapping the World Cup, there are plenty of sports that have another 'peak' if you like, alongside the Olympics. It's been going since 1993, so in a sense it's not that much younger than the 15-a-side World Cup (6 tournaments since 1987 vs 5 since 1993), would be a shame to ditch it - how many sports have Fiji been double world champions in? What's more, the RWC7s can go anywhere with decent facilities, as the condensed format of the sport allows that - the Olympics cannot. I don't see Dubai getting the Olympics anytime soon, for instance for climate reasons as much as anything else. The 1993 RWC7s was held in Edinburgh, and sure the tournament has grown since then but it's *highly* unlikely that Edinburgh will get an Olympics, whereas another RWC7s is feasible (in my opinion...). I can't help but feel the IRB would be shooting themselves in the foot somewhat by needlessly restricting where they could take the game as the RWC7s could easily go somewhere that isn't necessarily on the circuit or a city that was awarded the Olympics.

If this was a condition of admission to the Olympic roster I would be more inclined but Mike Miller did say it would happen upon re-inclusion.

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deLacey

17:08 on Thu 28 May 2009

I think it makes sense. If the IRB think it makes a difference to the campaign for re-inclusion, then it's far more important to get rugby into the Olympics than retain the World Cup 7s. Different story if it were the RWC (15s) of course.

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Jim Ross

12:20 on Tue 16 June 2009

I'd agree with that though, if it is viewed as helping with inclusion then I'd be more in favour - just seems a shame to me.

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