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Robin Heymann

Last week’s hoopla following the confirmation that the 2016 Olympics are heading to Rio de Janiero, have set the scene for tomorrow’s major IOC announcement.

Finally, we find out it Rugby Sevens and Golf have made the Olympic cut. The feeling is that the rugby community has done as much as they have possibly could have this time around. It’s been a comprehensive and clinical campaign by the IRB et al. We just have to wait and now see if Sevens gets that majority vote required.

There’s been an aura of cautious confidence in Rugby circles ahead of tomorrow. But even so it's pretty tempting to tempt fate and look ahead.

Can you imagine it?! The energy that surrounds Rugby Sevens combined with the samba carnival atmosphere of Rio de Janiero. I for one will be booking my ticket. Bring on Ipanema and Copacobana! Right, daydream over.

Getting Rugby back into the Olympics has been a long old slog. For 15 years the IRB have been trying to convince the folks from the IOC to draft Rugby in.

Erstwhile attempts to get Sevens into the Bejing 2008 and London 2012 games might have been deemed a failure, but its meant the IRB has come back more determined. Yes, we already knew Rugby Sevens fits into multi-sport events such as the Commonwealth Games and Asian Game with ease, but that’s old news. We now find Sevens in a much better shape to be named as an Olympic sport.

Improvements all round

From a playing perspective, the IRB World Sevens Series enjoyed its tenth anniversary last season and it has grown massively since Rugby last got rejected. With South Africa’s fully contracted players disrupting New Zealand’s dominance last season, Sevens has been taken to new levels on and off the pitch. Fiji, England, and Samoa are in good places and are going in the right direction, while Argentina, Kenya, Portugal and Scotland have made exciting strides.

The Rugby World Cup Sevens, in front of some invited IOC officials, was deemed hugely successful. It was upsets galore as the top four seeds went crashing in those crazy quarter finals in Dubai. 80-1 outsiders Wales were victorious and the inaugural Women’s competition went down a storm. Audition passed and IOC officials apparently enjoyed the show. Tick.

A key aspect for the 2016 campaign was to improve the Women’s game and this tournament change things immediately. England Sevens legend, Simon Amor, helped coach the Women’s side back in March and he stressed to me the standards have risen hugely as a consequence. Tick.

A record global audience switched on to the television broadcast coverage of the 2008/09 IRB Sevens World Series. 139 countries across six continents, with 35 broadcasters highlighting the action shows a decent spread and volume of interest. Yes, that will be another tick.

IRB Chairman, Bernard Lapasset has stressed Sevens possess the youth, passion and universiality that the IOC look for. He’s quite right.

We still have magical Hong Kong Sevens, but many regard the NZI Sevens in Wellington as the best rugby party in the world. Tickets for the 2010 event sold out online in just three minutes this year. Dubai’s ‘The Sevens’ is establishing itself as friendly home for the abbreviated code whilst the George Sevens and London Sevens are generating more interest than ever in South Africa and England.

These tournaments have helped build Sevens profile radically since Sevens’ last attempt at Olympic inclusion. The huge buzz Sevens has bought to the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and what it will bring to the Pan American Games is also exciting.

One has to applaud the IRB’s determination in this campaign and using the likes of Mike Lee, the communications and campaign guru for London 2012 and Rio 2016, was particularly shrewd. Importantly they have got the message across that the world’s leading 15-a-side players would all relish the opportunity of battling it out for a gold medal.

Commerical gains

Over the last year or so we have learned what the impact the Olympics could have on developing nations and Olympic superpowers such as the USA, Russia, and China. An increase of government funding and Rugby Sevens being introduced in schools are other exciting elements that will materialise. But what about the cloudy issue of the commercial effects?

Mike Millar, IRB Chief Executive, was quite right this week when he pointed out that people don’t quite realise how big this is for the sport. But what about off the pitch? The ‘suits’ must definitely be rubbing their hands together.

Giles Morgan, Head of Sponsorship at HSBC, earlier this week gave a brief indication (well more like a prediction) of the kind of potential riches that could lay ahead. He claimed Rugby Sevens’ potential Olympic entry could easily help double its current sponsorship money of about $15-20 million and that was being in his words, ‘conservative’.

“It will give both sports a shot in the arm, So you will see more interest, more television, and then more sponsors because sponsors follow where the people go.

“The IOC wants to renew its sports programme to attract a younger generation as it revises its broadcasting plans to include new digital media,” Morgan added.

If Sevens does get the green light it will particularly poignant for guys like Gordon Tietjens and Paul Treu, the respective coaches of New Zealand and South Africa. Both have dedicated their careers to the sport and wholeheartedly believed in the product. Tietjens’ passion and love for the game has seen him turn down lucrative offers to jump ship to 15s. ‘Tietj’ should be commended and let’s hope he has seven more years left in him.

The time for talk is over. By tomorrow afternoon, the rugby community can officially know if they can turn their attention to Rio 2016, Copacabana and maybe even the Estádio do Maracanã for the greatest sporting show on the planet. 

Cautious confidence though. It’s over to you Copenhagen…