DID YOU KNOW ? – The IOC has reintroduced rugby sevens to the Olympic programme since 2016 rather than its “big brother” 15s which left a sad image when it was an Olympic discipline.
After a French championship title and a Champions Cup victory with Toulouse, will Antoine Dupont end the season with a bang with an Olympic coronation in Paris? The star of the French XV dreams of a new consecration, but with the French rugby 7s selection this time. Because rugby, which made its big comeback at the Olympic Games in 2016, is not played in its traditional form with fifteen players but with seven players, with significantly different rules.
Also read: Paris 2024 Olympics: why we should write rugby 7s and not 7s
There are several reasons for the International Olympic Committee’s choice, which may be surprising in a country, France, where the media coverage of the “fifteen” is much higher than that of the seven. However, the latter was a real success in Rio and then in Tokyo. Some figures: in Japan, the competition generated 22 million video views and 3.4 million engagements on social networks, an increase of 77% compared to Rio 2016, and 313,000 new followers on social networks in July 2021 alone.
A sport in full expansion
In the media as on the pitch, rugby sevens is therefore undeniably on the rise, particularly in countries that are facing a glass ceiling in their progression to fifteens against the historic nations. And even if New Zealand has often dominated the annual men’s rugby sevens world series (SVNS, broadcast in more than 100 countries) with fourteen titles since its creation in 1999, emerging selections are managing to stand out, such as Kenya for example, Spain, Fiji, Canada, the United States and Samoa.
Also read: Paris 2024 Olympics: why the rugby ball is oval-shaped
More intensity and more speed at seven
The rugby sevens format has another advantage over its big brother, the fifteens: the rules are easier to assimilate. Both for players and spectators. The discipline is played on a field identical to that of the fifteens but with half as many players, which offers better readability to the uninitiated in the stands. The format of the matches is also shorter, 14 minutes (two times seven) instead of 80 minutes (two times forty) for rugby fifteen. The matches are therefore played at a very high intensity, giving the impression of being less choppy. Several matches can also follow one another on the same field during the same day. Practical and less expensive for the organizers.
Also read: Rugby 7s: Antoine Dupont elected revelation of the year
Given that it requires fewer participants, rugby sevens is also sometimes preferred by countries wishing to learn rugby, particularly in the women’s sections. An aspect appreciated by the International Olympic Committee attached to the notion of universality of a sport and its promotion at the global level when it knocks on the door of the Olympic Games. “Rugby 7s has established itself very quickly at the international level, partly for its spectacular side, but also for its ease of practice since it requires few players”, explains Nicolas Barizienformer head of the Pôle France Rugby and the French 7s team.
The disaster of rugby union at the 1924 Olympics
All the more so since rugby union, when it had the chance to be on the menu of the Olympic Games (in 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924) did not leave a good image. The 1924 edition in Paris with three participating countries (France, the United States and Romania), was even catastrophic for the image of this sport. The final between the French and the Americans took place in a stormy context where the chestnuts and insults were more numerous than the tries scored (17-3 in favor of the United States). A parody of a final that made the captain of the French team, the famous Alphonse Jauréguy, or the Franco-American second row Allan Muhr say: “It’s the worst thing you could do without knives and guns.” This deplorable episode led to the exclusion of rugby union from the Olympic Games.
