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Robin Heymann

‘Showcasing Rugby Sevens’ has very much been the buzz phrase in the last six months or so. With some big tournaments on offer, the 7s community has pulled together all with one long term aim. To get Rugby back in the Olympics.

The spotlight now falls firmly on Kaohsiung in Taiwan with a handful of the sports international elite making their way to the 2009 World Games. This international multi-sport event is meant for sports which are not yet (!) contested at the Olympic Games but are suitably recognised by the IOC. It’s a pretty big deal for Taiwan as it’s the first time it has hosted an Olympic-related event since they started to compete as Chinese Taipei at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

With only 8 teams set to line up, as far as the rugby is concerned it would be easy to belittle the tournament. But looking beneath the surface unravels plenty of mini sub plots making the two day (July 24th-25th) shindig an interesting affair.

It has already been seven weeks since South Africa stood triumphant on the IRB Series winner’s podium at a sun soaked Murrayfield. A gold medal here would be another welcome bit of silverware on their continued quest to dominating all realms of the 7s game. Standing firmly in their way are the Fijians, their opponents in the final of the last World Games back in 2005 in Duisbrug.

With the Fijians racing into a 19-0 lead on that day, Paul Treu’s Boks were forced to dig deep turning the match around 21-19. With the scores locked down at 26 apiece, the stage was of course set for the still limber puppeteer-in-chief himself, Waisale Serevi, to crash over with seconds to spare to give Fiji a deserved Gold.

Repeat of 2005 final?

Both sides head to Taiwan this time around as overwhelming favorites, and although this is severely tempting fate, if would take a brave man to suggest they both won’t meet in the final on Saturday.

Despite South Africa’s IRB World Sevens Series win, it’s the Fijians who hold some sort of hoodoo over the Boks in recent times. They have lost to them in their last four finals the two teams have been involved in. Both have included strong teams here and this extra time spent together can only be detrimental to the likes of England, New Zealand, and Samoa when the IRB Series bandwagon restarts in November.

We all know about the strides Portugal have made in 7s, but they suffered badly at the recent Euro Championships and they have the tools to make amends here.

Argentina have left the majority of their leading lights at home, but include seasoned campaigners such as Nunez LaSalle and Olivari. Watch out for their trademark harrying and harassing in blunting their opposition’s advances, a trait we have become all so familiar with.

And what of the USA? Still very much in a rebuilding phase. We get the chance to spy the development of their young bucks, many talented athletes but raw when it comes to 7s. Another wave of ‘crossover’ athletes are being looked at by Caravelli with the most high profile inclusion being Leonard Peters, a former ‘Safety’ for the NFL’s Chicago Bears.

And what about the Asian sides? In 7s terms Hong Kong lead the pack here, with huge strides being taken by the HKRFC with central contracts and a superb new coach in Dai Rees. They face Japan in their group and there isn’t much love lost here, such is the rugby rivalry between these two emerging powers. The hosts Chinese Taipei will have some fervent support and it’s nice to see another Asian side on a world stage.

Platform for the Olympics

So what else do we need to know about the World Games? It’s organised under the auspices of International World Games Association (IWGA) and events are broken down into specific categories: Trend, Specific, Ball, Artistic and Dance, Marital, and Precision.

The list of events certainly throws out some interesting one, some of which I frankly had to do some of my own research on to decipher what they actually entailed. Korf Ball, Aikido, and Fistball threw me but apparently all have huge followings, and along with all the sports on offer, harbour hopes of joining the higher echelons in the Olympic Games.

Some of the sports that were on the programme of the World Games eventually made it as Olympic sports (such as the Triathlon) or have been Olympic sports in the past, my particular favourite being the hard-nosed nature honesty of ‘tug of war’ (even if it does remind me of ungainly and rotund men at the local village fête).

With a reported 3,100 athletes, coaches and officials from 105 countries in house, it will give the 7s boys an Olympic-esque taster, as they dilute themselves amongst other athletes in the ‘Village’.

Valuable lessons will be learnt

Although down on the list of priorities compared to the IRB Series and Commonwealth Games of this world, it still provides some valuable lessons for all the teams involved.

For teams such as USA and Hong Kong it provides the perfect opportunity to test combinations, whilst youngsters gain experience in a pressure cooker environment.

With the US team in an evolution period it gives a platform for Al Caravelli to test his talented youngsters ahead of tougher pastures of the IRB Sevens, Commonwealth Games and the Pan American games in 2011, an event the coach has specifically labelled as a target. The same applies for the likes of Hong Kong.

“We are entering a new and very exciting period for sevens rugby in Hong Kong," said national head coach Dai Rees.

"The inaugural Asian Sevens Series starts this season, the East Asian Games take place in December, followed by the Hong Kong Sevens in March and the Asian Games in December 2010.

“It is important to expose inexperienced players to intense competition, while ensuring that we achieve a balance of experienced sevens internationals in each squad," added Rees.

Inspiring experience

And it’s not just the lower ranked teams who are looking forward to experiencing something a bit different from the usual experiences in the IRB Series.

“The World Games is something that we are really looking forward to,” said South Africa’s Mpho Mbiyozo. “My teammates and I anticipate that being in Kaohsiung, competing for a medal with top level athletes from around the world and experiencing a truly international sporting event will be an inspiring experience.

“The World Games gives us a sense of what we might experience at the Olympic Games, he added.”

With this added anticipation that Sevens could receive the Olympic all clear from the IOC, the 7s in Kaohsiung will further be pushed into the spotlight and yet another showcase of the sport.

Already traditionally acclaimed as the most popular event at previous World Games, the rugby will take place in the 55,000 packed cauldron of the main World Games Stadium of the games. Actually its only one of two events taking place there, the other being ‘Flying Disc’ - a cosmic description of what is effectively Ultimate Frisbee.

“The Sevens tournament at the World Games has always proven successful and this year we are particularly excited that the competition is being held in Asia,” said IRB President Bernard Lapasset.

"Rugby is reaching out there to new young audiences in a rapidly developing market for our sport. We are looking forward to what promises to be an exciting tournament,” added the IRB head.

World Games swansong?

So with all due respect to the World Games, let’s keep our fingers crossed that this is Rugby Sevens’ last appearance, with the Olympic carrot dangling perilously close. From the neutral and players perspective it’s another opportunity to see Sevens rub shoulders with other sports and fellow elite athletes.

The World Games will certainly miss Sevens if the sport does get elevated. As discussed earlier the middle tiered nations really do benefit from these lower-scaled tournaments, allowing them to do some fine tuning ahead of the IRB Series.

And of course what about the obvious up side for Taiwan itself? As far as rugby is concerned, it’s got to be pretty much the biggest thing it has hosted, providing a superb opportunity to kick-start the game’s community through promotion, recognition, and the thrills of competition. Sevens continues to reach out...

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