IRB responds to Sevens 'joke' jibe

Rugby bosses demand fair crack at Olympic inclusion

The International Rugby Board (IRB) and the captains of the world's top Sevens teams have expressed their outrage to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after one of the organisation's top officials dismissed the abbreviated form of the game as "something of a joke".

Sevens is seeking to be included in the Olympics, and the IRB fear the remark made by Denis Oswald - the president of Association of Summer Olympic International Federations - could derail the bid.

Sevens - along with golf, squash, roller sports and karate - is on the short-list for inclusion should the IOC membership decide at a secret vote in Singapore on July 8 to exclude one of the existing 28 sports, and the IRB are concerned that Oswald's snub could unduly influence the electorate.

Oswald - who also holds the position of president of FISA, the international rowing federation - has yet to take up an open invitation to attend an IRB Sevens tournaments, and IRB chief executive Mike Miller is appealing for the sport to get an unprejudiced shot at inclusion.

"It is very disappointing that a high-ranking official of the IOC should make erroneous comments about one of the world's fastest growing sports based on hearsay," Miller told this website.

"The IOC has undertaken a review process aimed at analysing all current Olympic sports and the five sports short-listed for possible inclusion in the 2012 Olympics.

"Based on Mr Oswald's unfounded comments, it appears that the review process has not achieved its goal of allowing an objective comparison between sports to take place.
 
"The IRB is therefore asking that rugby, and the other four short-listed sports, be allowed to present to the IOC Members in Singapore in July so that our cases can be properly heard and understood before any vote is taken on the existing 28 sports.

"The IRB believes that such a fair and transparent process is in the best interests of the 33 sports concerned, and the Olympic Games itself."

Luckily for the IRB, rugby has a good friend at the IOC - it's president, Jacques Rogge.

Rogge is a former Belgium rugby international and still regularly attends Test matches. In 2002 he tried unsuccessfully to remove baseball, softball and modern pentathlon from the Olympics and replace them with Sevens and golf, but IOC members resisted the plan and no vote was taken.

Rogge is due to receive a strongly-worded letter from the skippers of the 16 countries that took part in this weekend's Paris Sevens who have expressed their wish to see the oval ball represented at the Games.

'We ask that you publicly disassociate the IOC from these ill-founded, unwarranted and damaging comments which have been made about the sport that we all love and have dedicated ourselves to,' they wrote.

'It is our belief that rugby sevens would be a strong and popular addition to the Olympic programme in 2012. We look forward to having the opportunity of representing our countries at the Olympics in the future.'

Over the last year 86 countries competed in over 20 IRB Sevens tournaments around the world, with the highlight being the World Cup in Hong Kong in March.

All 120,000 tickets to the three-day tournament were sold, it enjoyed 160 hours of live broadcast coverage in 37 countries and an additional 40 hours of delayed broadcast coverage in a further 63 countries.

Fiji were crowned world champions after beating New Zealand, and the Fijian government declared a public holiday to celebrate the famous victory.

By Andy Jackson