Rugby Sevens Makes 2016 Olympics Pitch

The International Rugby Board today promised to ditch the Sevens World Cup if it succeeds in its bid to have it included in the Olympics.

The IRB believes that inclusion for sevens in the Games will help the sport grow globally, particularly in countries without a strong rugby-playing tradition, and promised to make the Olympics the pinnacle of the sport's four-year cycle.

Mike Miller, the chief executive, said its pitch to the International Olympic Committee at next month's executive board meeting in Lausanne would be based on rugby's commercial strength and the game's ability to help the Olympics reach a younger audience.

"Sevens is already a huge sport in other multi-sport events. Rugby fans travel and they travel in numbers and they will go to see other events as well," said Miller. "We feel we can help them achieve one of their aims, which is to remain relevant to younger sporting fans."

Miller said the eight-leg IRB World Series – which heads to Edinburgh this weekend – would become a qualification event for the Olympics, and the World Cup, recently held in Dubai, would be scrapped if Olympic status was achieved from 2016.

"If we were to be re-included in the Olympic Games our intention would be to stop the World Cup Sevens, so there would be one pinnacle in a four-year cycle for rugby sevens and that pinnacle would be the Olympic Games."

Rugby sevens is competing with golf, karate, squash, baseball, softball and roller-sports for two available places in the 2016 Olympics. Alongside golf, rugby is considered one of the favorites. In 2005, when it last failed in its attempt to be included, it was accused of misjudging its pitch and criticized for not doing enough to develop the women's game globally.

The IRB chairman, Bernard Lapasset, who has traveled extensively since the Beijing Olympics to push rugby's case, said: "The feedback I have received has been very encouraging."

The IRB will argue that the sport can be easily staged in an existing venue over two or three days. It believes inclusion in the Olympics would give a big boost to the women's game and to nations that are not traditionally strong in the 15-a-side game.

"Rugby has shown tremendous growth but there are still 90 countries that do not play rugby. The Olympics is the biggest sporting stage there is," said Miller.

"In countries like USA, Russia, China, Mexico, Brazil, India – the big economies – we have been told their funding structures for sport are focused on the Olympics. If rugby is in the Olympic Games they would not only get funding but access to facilities and coaching."

The IRB has succeeded in increasing global playing numbers from two to three million over the last decade, not including tag, touch or beach rugby.