Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics

Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics was played for the first time at the 2016 Summer Olympics with both men's and women's contests. Rugby sevens was added to the Olympics following the decision of the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen in October 2009. The champions for the inaugural rugby sevens tournament in 2016 were Fiji for the men and Australia for the women.

This article is about the 7-a-side version of the game introduced for the 2016 Summer Olympics and beyond. For the 15-a-side version, which was discontinued at the Summer Olympics after 1924, see Rugby union at the Summer Olympics.

Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics
Governing body	WR
Events	2 (men: 1; women: 1)
Games
1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Medalists

Efforts to include rugby sevens in the Olympics

1932 bid

A Scottish man based in Canada, Mr. W. Hastie Cochrane, was unsuccessful in his bid to get rugby sevens into the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. The reason given was that two exhibition sports were already picked: American Football and Lacrosse.[1]

2012 bid

Rugby sevens was one of five sports — golf, karate, roller sports, rugby, and squash — that submitted a proposal to the IOC at the 117th IOC Session meeting in Singapore in 2005 for inclusion in the 2012 games.[2] The IOC stated that no sport would be added unless others were dropped.[3] However, the selection of two sports out of the five nominees as potential 2012 sports went to squash and karate, as determined by a voting procedure.[4]

2016 bid

Most recently, rugby sevens competed with golf for two available spaces in the 2016 Olympics. The final decision was made at the IOC Session in Copenhagen in October 2009. The IRB used a number of high-profile people and events to influence the IOC to include sevens at the 2016 games. In March 2009, two senior delegates from the IOC attended the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai at the invitation of the IRB. The event attracted 78,000 fans over the three days and saw Wales crowned Men’s World Champions and Australia won the first ever Women's World Cup.

Along with the World Cup, the IRB enlisted some of rugby’s biggest names to assist in the bid. In March 2009, Jonah Lomu and Lawrence Dallaglio were announced as ambassadors for the bid and in April 2009 Waisale Serevi was unveiled as an ambassador to coincide with the Oceania National Olympic Committees' general assembly.[5] May 2009 saw the IRB announce that they would drop the Rugby World Cup Sevens in order to improve the chances of the sport being included. The benefit of this move would be to make the Olympics the premier event in international rugby sevens.

As well as rugby sevens, baseball and softball, which were dropped from the Olympic programme in 2005, karate, squash, golf and roller sports (inline speed skating) were all seeking to be included in the 2016 games and leaders of the seven sports made formal presentations to the IOC executive board in June 2009.[6] A new system was in place at this session in which a sport now needs only a simple majority rather than the two-thirds majority that was required before.[7]

On 13 August 2009 it was announced that the IOC executive board was recommending rugby sevens for inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games[7] and on 9 October 2009 the full IOC, at its 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen, voted to include rugby sevens in the 2016 games.

Separate competitions for men and women will be held, using a similar format to the existing IRB Sevens World Series. The IRB had originally proposed including 12 teams of each sex, the same number as other team ball sports events. During the IRB's presentation at the IOC Session, two IOC members asked why only 12 teams were included. IRB Chief Executive Mike Miller responded, "We followed the guidance of the Executive Members of the IOC, but if the IOC feels we should have more teams, we will add more."[8]

Qualifying

Twelve rugby teams participate in the men’s and women’s competitions, qualifying through one of the four following routes:

• Four teams qualify by finishing in the top four in the World Rugby Sevens Series.
• Six teams qualify by finishing first in their respective continental championships — Europe, Africa, Oceania, Asia, South America, and North America.
• The host country qualifies automatically.
• The last qualifying place goes to the team that wins an inter-continental competition.

Competition format

Both the men’s and women’s competition consist of two parts — pool play followed by a knockout round. For pool play, the twelve teams are divided into three pools of four teams each. Each team plays the other three teams in the pool once. At the end of pool play, the eight best teams — the top two from each group plus the two best third-place finishers — qualify for the quarterfinals, while the other four teams move to a consolation bracket. The knockout rounds proceed through the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. The winner of the finals earns the gold medal and the finals runner-up earns silver. The two losing semifinalists play a third-place playoff to determine who earns the bronze medal.

History

2016

Main article: Rugby sevens at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Huriana Manuel (left) of New Zealand and Kelly Griffin (right) of United States.

Though rugby had not been featured in the Olympics since the 1924 Summer Olympics in any form, the IOC chose to re-introduce the seven-a-side version of the sport for the games.[9] The sport featured for this olympics and the following 2020 Summer Olympics.

The rugby competition took place in a temporary arena at Deodoro Stadium. The original plan was to stage the rugby matches at the São Januário Stadium. However this was scrapped because the club in charge of the venue missed the deadline to present its project. The Organising Committee considered Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, which would have had to have been shared with the athletics competitions.[10] It was later announced that the rugby competition will take place in a temporary arena at Deodoro Stadium, shared with the modern pentathlon. In April 2016 concerns were raised by the World Rugby head of competitions and performance, Mark Egan, about progress of construction at the temporary 15,000-seater stadium.[11]

The competition ran from the August 6–11, taking a maximum six days.[12] In the Men's tournament, pool A consisted of Fiji, Argentina, USA and Brazil. Pool B included South Africa, Australia, France and Spain while pool C consisted of New Zealand, Great Britain, Kenya and Japan.[13] In the Women's tournament pool A consisted of Australia, USA, Fiji and Colombia. Pool B included New Zealand, France, Spain and Kenya while pool C consisted of Canada, Great Britain, Brazil and Japan.

The women's saw Australia beating New Zealand 24–17 in the first final of women's rugby union at the Olympic Games. New Zealand took the early lead but Australia fought back and looked the most dangerous team throughout. The New Zealand defence was brutal early. Australia had the ball for the first two minutes but there was just no way through. New Zealand eventually found a way through after five minutes through Kayla McAlister. Australia almost struck back two minutes later but brutal one-on-one New Zealand defence prevented the try. Finally Australia scored in the corner. The ball looked to be grassed early and then bobble over the line without Australian player Emma Tonegato being in control. But the five points went onto the scoreboard. They went on and scored again right on halftime through Evania Pelite. Australia made an awful start to the second half, kicking the ball out on the full. But they soon recovered with tries to Ellia Green and Charlotte Caslick.

In the men's tournament, Fiji secured their first Olympic medal with emphatic 43–7 win over Great Britain, as South Africa won bronze with big win over Japan. Having never previously won an Olympic medal of any colour, Fiji won gold at the Deodoro Stadium by demolishing Britain in the final. The opening minute saw Osea Kolinisau left one and one with Tom Mitchell and although his fellow captain halted his progress, Kolinisau was still able to stretch and touch the ball down behind his head. Almost straight away, Fiji had a second try. Samisoni Viriviri muscled his way past two players before offloading to Jerry Tuwai to score under the posts. After that Britain were shell shocked and Fiji racked up a further five tries.

Men's summaries

Year	Host		Final				Bronze medal match
			Gold medal	Score	Silver medal		Bronze medal	Score	Fourth place
2016	Rio		Fiji	43–7	Great Britain		South Africa	54–14	Japan
2020	Tokyo

Women's summaries

Year	Host		Final				Bronze medal match
			Gold medal	Score	Silver medal		Bronze medal	Score	Fourth place
2016	Rio		Australia	24–17	New Zealand		Canada	33–10	Great Britain
2020	Tokyo

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia (AUS)	1	0	0	1
	Fiji (FIJ)	1	0	0	1
3	Great Britain (GBR)	0	1	0	1
	New Zealand (NZL)	0	1	0	1
5	Canada (CAN)	0	0	1	1
	South Africa (RSA)	0	0	1	1
Totals (6 nations)		2	2	2	6

Men's participating nations

Nation	96	00	04	08	12	20	24	28	32	36	48	52	56	60	64	68	72	76	80	84	88	92	96	00	04	08	12	16	20	Years
Australia (AUS)																												8th	Q	2
Argentina (ARG)																												6th	Q	2
Brazil (BRA)																												12th		1
Canada (CAN)																													Q	1
Fiji (FIJ)																													Q	2
France (FRA)																												7th		1
Great Britain (GBR)																													Q	2
Japan (JPN)																												4th	Q	2
Kenya (KEN)																												11th	Q	2
New Zealand (NZL)																												5th	Q	2
South Africa (RSA)																													Q	2
South Korea (KOR)																													Q	1
Spain (ESP)																												10th		1
United States (USA)																												9th	Q	2
Nations																												12	12	14
Athletes																												144	144

Women's participating nations

Nation	96	00	04	08	12	20	24	28	32	36	48	52	56	60	64	68	72	76	80	84	88	92	96	00	04	08	12	16	20	Years
Australia (AUS)																													Q	2
Brazil (BRA)																												9th	Q	2
Canada (CAN)																													Q	2
China (CHN)																													Q	1
Colombia (COL)																												12th		1
Fiji (FIJ)																												8th	Q	2
France (FRA)																												6th		1
Japan (JPN)																												10th	Q	2
Great Britain (GBR)																												4th	Q	2
Kenya (KEN)																												11th	Q	2
New Zealand (NZL)																													Q	2
Spain (ESP)																												7th		1
United States (USA)																												5th	Q	2
Nations																												12	12	13
Athletes																												144	144

See also

• Rugby union at the Summer Olympics (15-a-side rugby union, held 1900–1924)
• Wheelchair rugby at the Summer Paralympics

References

1. https://scottishsevens.sport.blog/2019/08/21/olympic-try-outs/
2. "Emirates Supports IRB Rugby Sevens 2012 Olympic Bid". asiatraveltips.com. Archived from the original on 2006-03-06. Retrieved 9 May 2006.
3. "Five up for Games inclusion". BBC. 22 November 2004. Archived from the original on 2007-02-03. Retrieved 15 May 2006.
4. "Singapore 2005: 2012 Olympic Sport Vote". olympic.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2006-05-16. Retrieved 15 May 2006.
5. "Serevi joins the stars clamoring for Sevens' Olympic inclusion". ur7s.com. Archived from the original on 2009-06-09. Retrieved 28 May 2009.
6. "Golf among seven sports seeking inclusion in 2016 Games". ESPN. 25 April 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-02-22. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
7. Wilson, Stephen (13 August 2009). "Golf, rugby backed by IOC board for 2016 Games". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
8. Caravelli, Al (23 October 2009). "Al Caravelli: "I can't stop smiling"". International Rugby Board. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
9. "Rugby". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
10. "Rio organizers forced to change 2016 rugby venue". sportsillustrated.cnn.com. 1 November 2012. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
11. Morgan, Liam (19 April 2016). "Rio 2016 sevens preparations "not exactly where we want to be", claims World Rugby official". Inside the Games. Archived from the original on 2016-04-22. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
12. "Daily Competition Schedule" (PDF). Rio 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 June 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
13. "Olympic sevens rugby: Great Britain face World Cup winners New Zealand". Archived from the original on 2016-07-02. Retrieved 28 June 2016.

External links

• IRB Sevens
• Olympics at World Rugby