Can Australia start paying attention to Sevens?
Roar Guru By rugbyfuture, 11 Feb 2010 rugbyfuture is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- 2016 Olympics, rugby 7s, Rugby sevens, Rugby Union, wallabies
152 Have your say
It has been proven that Australians love a gold medal, especially over the Yanks, Poms or Kiwis. Much has been made about the inclusion of rugby sevens in the Olympics.
The main problem Australian rugby has with their hopes in 2016 will be the fact that Australia has never taken Sevens seriously.
This dismissal of the Sevens game, which is otherwise a massive boost to rugby, is most likely because of Australia’s high focus on rugby league. That makes becoming the faster and more carnival game of rugby more difficult.
It is true that rugby league has been able to capitalise on the greater aspects of their game since its inception. This spot in most other countries, especially developing ones, has been taken by Sevens.
The Sevens program, even with the ignorance towards it, has developed well and brought out a few fifteen-man Wallabies. This may be perhaps a testament to rugby within Australia which, even with it being ignored by most, still manages to put out some of the greatest.
The interest here, however, is whether people will start taking Sevens seriously. If a Gold medal hope is to become reality at Rio 2016, there has to be enough public interest to develop the talent pool, and take those more suited to the Sevens game, rather than let them run off into other footballs.
Hopefully the entrance of rugby sevens in the Olympics will be met with a good integration of the Sevens development program into the Olympic development program, and create a better base than is currently in existence.
Because right now, with such a close competitor in rugby league, there’s not much anticipation for gold.
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- Explore:
- 2016 Olympics, rugby 7s, Rugby sevens, Rugby Union, wallabies
February 12th 2010 @ 11:52am
Rod said | February 12th 2010 @ 11:52am | Report comment
Didn’t the Bradford Bulls walk the Union 7′s in England as well as Wigan before them?
lol, they haven’t invited any Leagues teams back since.
Yep, it’s a hard game to play and I bet all these Kenyans and Ethiopians would smash it up against a bunch of nobodies like Inglis, Slater, Hayne, Grothe, Marshall Prince and the rest of these nobodies.
February 12th 2010 @ 7:29pm
Sam said | February 12th 2010 @ 7:29pm | Report comment
You seen Kenya play? They aren’t built like marathon runners.
February 12th 2010 @ 8:03pm
Rod said | February 12th 2010 @ 8:03pm | Report comment
For crying out loud, I have watched plenty of Union 7s over the years.
The fact is, the guys playing 7s are the guys not good enough for the XV’s.
They make stuff all money from 7s and play a heap of pub teams from Rugby backwaters.
February 12th 2010 @ 11:22pm
rugbyfuture said | February 12th 2010 @ 11:22pm | Report comment
its called rugby sevens, for one thing, and you obviously have no idea of the ideologies of this variant of the game.
February 13th 2010 @ 8:42am
Sam said | February 13th 2010 @ 8:42am | Report comment
What are you talking about? The IRB Sevens series isn’t pub teams, it’s international sides! A great 7′s player isn’t necessarily a great 15′s player are visa versa. Look at Wasaile Serevi, never a great 15′s player but was the best of all time in 7′s. I know they don’t make heaps of money from 7′s but what does that have to do with it? You keep quoting examples of club sides playing in local/domestic 7′s competitions – I don’t see how club teams in mostly amateur carnival tournaments proves that NRL players are better at 7′s than Fiji rugby reps.
February 15th 2010 @ 12:14am
Siva Samoa said | February 15th 2010 @ 12:14am | Report comment
what happen when st helens rugby league team and the london broncos came up against southern hemisphere clubs and invitatition teams in the dubai club sevens tournaments ?
February 13th 2010 @ 10:56am
Rod said | February 13th 2010 @ 10:56am | Report comment
For crying out loud, you want to put a bunch of amateurs up against full time pros and tell me the amateurs will win?
Get off the grass.
The Barla RL side played in the Middle east comp in Dubai last year, you know what Barla stands for?
February 15th 2010 @ 7:28am
Siva Samoa said | February 15th 2010 @ 7:28am | Report comment
For crying out loud, you want to put a bunch of amateurs up against full time pros and tell me the amateurs will win? – rod
the last three commonwealth games has shown us that amateurs sevens players can beat their fully professional xv’s players in the sevens games. the best sevens players in samoa are playing in the irb sevens tournaments not the professionals playing xv’s for clubs in europe, nz and japan.
February 13th 2010 @ 4:08pm
Rod said | February 13th 2010 @ 4:08pm | Report comment
Fair dinkum, I put in what to type at Youtube, the proof is in the pudding.
RL teams playing by union rules belt union teams, live with it, I do
February 15th 2010 @ 7:25am
Siva Samoa said | February 15th 2010 @ 7:25am | Report comment
professional rugby league teams, club rugby teams from samoa and southern hemisphere invitation teams belt rugby union clubs in england.
February 15th 2010 @ 10:01am
King of the Gorganites said | February 15th 2010 @ 10:01am | Report comment
RUGBY IS BACK – what a great weekend of entertaining rugby in the the S14 and 6N. some great ball in hand rugby. whilst some teams still need to work out that the best form of rugby is ball in hand (i.e waratahs, england and Italy).
where are all the knockers now (i.e Mitch, Oikee and Realist).
Looks like its going to be a great year for rugby. all looks good building into the RWC 2011 and the all imprtant olympics. watch out league!
February 15th 2010 @ 1:28pm
rugbyfuture said | February 15th 2010 @ 1:28pm | Report comment
Samoa just won the Cup at the USA sevens, over NZ, South africa won the plate and USA the bowl
February 15th 2010 @ 2:11pm
Stefan du plesis said | February 15th 2010 @ 2:11pm | Report comment
how was the crowd? Curious as it was the first time in vegas after previously being in la n San diego
February 15th 2010 @ 8:45pm
Siva Samoa said | February 15th 2010 @ 8:45pm | Report comment
the crowd looks pretty good for a first timer. almost in tears when the samoan supporters ran into the field to congradulate the players and coaches. the kenya had alot of supports and did the samoan, fijians and kiwi’s. this tournament could turn out to be another wellington, hong kong and dubai.
February 15th 2010 @ 10:42pm
Rod said | February 15th 2010 @ 10:42pm | Report comment
Funny thing siva (PW), I seen you posting about this last night on another forum and you were asking for another link because you didn’t want to download something, so how’d you end up watching it and seeing what the crowd was mate?
February 16th 2010 @ 5:31pm
Siva Samoa said | February 16th 2010 @ 5:31pm | Report comment
i post on the another thread thinking the game was on at sunday night but then i woke up in the morning and there was another thread and the game was about to start. i watched all day yesterday including the final. there were two links to the rib sevens and one of them you had to download some japanese language packages . luckly my mate justin tv came to the rescue.
anyway foxtel show the sevens yesterday afternoon .
February 16th 2010 @ 7:49pm
Rod said | February 16th 2010 @ 7:49pm | Report comment
I had a look at J TV when i seen your post and it mentioned being on, but when I went to watch, nothing came up.
I had a look at myp2p and still couldn’t get it and then seen that same site you mentioned with the Japanese stuff, I downloaded it and still got nothing.
Damn waste of my time it was, very frustrating.
February 17th 2010 @ 5:48pm
siva samoa said | February 17th 2010 @ 5:48pm | Report comment
its was actually working but you have to push f5 or refresh now and then.
February 15th 2010 @ 9:25pm
Stefan du plesis said | February 15th 2010 @ 9:25pm | Report comment
Great news siva. Always insiightful. I felt the same when the samoans won. Is the big Samoan contingent explained by the connection with America Samoa?
Do you know how the saffas went?
Just caught the end of the game. Agree with you that the comp has potential to be a big party event aka Wellington.
I know I’m pumped for Adelaide. Should b massive. Bring it on!
February 15th 2010 @ 10:00pm
Siva Samoa said | February 15th 2010 @ 10:00pm | Report comment
there’s a;so many western samoan living in the states through church works and scholarships. south africa played their best game of the tournament in the final of the plate where they beat fiji 12-7. china took the women 7′s title beating the usa team in the final.
6.39 million french watched the six nations game between france and ireland on france 2 in the weekend.
February 16th 2010 @ 9:07am
King of the Gorganites said | February 16th 2010 @ 9:07am | Report comment
the sevens is going from strength to strength. it will only get bigger now its in the olympics!
france really love there rugby. they are huge figures. during the 07 RWC france games were attracting figures of 20M, which was comparable to the 98 soccer world cup. our global game is getting bigger and bigger, whilst international RL is dying (i.e wales)