Does sevens rugby hurt or hinder the main game?
Roar Rookie By jmacredie, 16 May 2012 jmacredie is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Olympics, Rugby sevens, Rugby Union, Super Rugby
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Only four years to go. Four years until the most important development in rugby since the game turned professional.
The Rugby World Cup and professionalism changed the face of the game dramatically. The RWC has shown the game to people that may have never watched rugby before and professionalism has given a career path for the people that play it.
The Olympics, though, can spread the game much further. The global audience and the funding for the sport that goes with being in the Olympic family are considerable advantages for any sport.
Sevens is also a lot less technical and much more open. It is easier for people to pick up and play so the opportunity for growth is amazing. 15s and 7s are quite different games and I enjoy both of them.
However, will those benefits transfer into the main form of the game?
I believe there is a danger that the two games will become so separated that rugby in the Olympics may not benefit the 15′s game at all.
It could be that 7s end up being the truly global sport, which is the wish of anyone involved with 15s rugby.
I think both games can benefit from the Olympics, but by running parallel competitions. Super Rugby would have the super sevens running at the same time.
When the Chiefs play the Reds in Super Rugby, the Chiefs 7s team play the Reds 7s team. As they are short games they could play one game before and one during the half time break of the Super Rugby game.
This would bring the games closer together and increase the number of 7s athletes for the Olympics.
It would also get more people into 7s.
It would also be a great way to give the younger new talent a pathway into the Super Rugby teams.
It could also bring more advertising dollars. This sort of thing could happen in the Avia championship, the Top 14 and any other competition at any level. The potential could be huge.
I’m no accountant but surely it wouldn’t add to much cost to the teams and the extra advertising dollars that it brings in should more than offset additional costs.
I’m keen to see something like this happen.
Over to you, Roarers? Does anyone else have any idea’s to bring 15s and 7s closer together and make them one family instead of separate entities?
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- Explore:
- Olympics, Rugby sevens, Rugby Union, Super Rugby
May 16th 2012 @ 8:33am
stojo01 said | May 16th 2012 @ 8:33am | Report comment
Rugby League has more in common with sevens than Rugby Union. I expect the 2016 Olympics to be the one arena where Australia can show the depth it has in both rugby codes. Ask any kiwi and they will say “If Australia all played Union nationally over the past 20 years instead of two they would have been unstoppable” . The best thing that happened for Aus Sevens for 2016 is the contracting of players so they can compete and recruit from both codes.
May 16th 2012 @ 8:56am
mania said | May 16th 2012 @ 8:56am | Report comment
stojo01 – generalising much? i’m a kiwi and i wouldnt say that. i would say though that if aus made rugby less elitest and had all school kids playing then wallaby’s would be diffucult to beat
un stoppable, nah, not even AB’s get that kind of accolade
May 16th 2012 @ 12:01pm
mattamkII said | May 16th 2012 @ 12:01pm | Report comment
please explain how you mean 7′s is more like league?
May 16th 2012 @ 1:21pm
The Great G Nepia said | May 16th 2012 @ 1:21pm | Report comment
I can’t see how League has more in common with 7s than Union?? A three man sevens scrum has more grunt and power than a full league scrum for a start! Secondly, there’s no contest for possession in league – the contest is the whole essence of Union whether 7s or 15s, but in league there’s no contest for anything except the latest headlines in the Daily Telegraph!
May 16th 2012 @ 2:50pm
mattamkII said | May 16th 2012 @ 2:50pm | Report comment
The only similarity is the ratio of drunk bogans in the stands are quite similar…..
anyone know where the back door is?
May 19th 2012 @ 11:07am
Bakkies said | May 19th 2012 @ 11:07am | Report comment
Why should NRL players be allowed to play in the 7s in the Olympics? Separate sport which was a breakaway from the establishment, players are registered with the NRL and the clubs wouldn’t allow it. The Olympics are on during the crunch time of the NRL. If players like Bunji Marshall want to play in the Olympics they need to stop signing long term multi year deals with NRL clubs and sign with the NZRU to play in the ITM Cup.
May 16th 2012 @ 9:18am
Matt_S said | May 16th 2012 @ 9:18am | Report comment
There are so many Olympic sports that receive great govt funding but only receive a ínterest’ every 4 years then majority of people return to their ‘normal’ sporting passions. I was going through the funding levels of the British Olympic sports and were very impressive. But most of those sports are generally not in the sporting consciousness of the ‘masses’. But despite this funding most of these sports remain for the committed few and have not broken out in to a mainstream sporting following.
I have honestly tried to watch 7′s union and find my attention quickly moving elsewhere. it can only, in my opinion, become a ‘party’ circuit sport and is too short to become a mainstream professional competition style sport that can give us week in week out club competition. I think 10′s union is a much better proposition and more like the parent game and maintaining similarities with the 15 game.
As a leagiue’s prospective, 7′s will not be the end of our game. This is my interest in this particular subject as there is common debate among a few union fans on this matter. I think it will have much more impact on the parent code than on league.
Interesting this organisation behind sevens rugby in the USA have just moved on securing the AMNRL (official body for USA Rugby League) as a partner.
May 16th 2012 @ 11:21am
Working Class Rugger said | May 16th 2012 @ 11:21am | Report comment
They didn’t ‘secure’ a partner. They bought them out.
May 16th 2012 @ 1:27pm
The Great G Nepia said | May 16th 2012 @ 1:27pm | Report comment
Disagree totally, sevens has taken the space League was after, namely a global alternative to 15s Union that is fast, easy-to-understand, and furious. Sevens will continue to grow at a massive rate, and this = more money and resources to the IRB, and more money into the development of Union globally. 7s and 15s will compliment each other, and in the process bring tens of millions of extra dollars into the IRB’s coffers each year. If anything, league globally will suffer as it simply does not have the financial resources to combat Unions relentless growth. We haven’t even got to the 2016 Olympics yet, imagine the growth after the Olympics.
May 16th 2012 @ 9:19am
peterlala said | May 16th 2012 @ 9:19am | Report comment
Is New Zealand the rugby league world champion? Someone must play league in NZ.
May 16th 2012 @ 9:41am
Sailosi said | May 16th 2012 @ 9:41am | Report comment
Rugby 7′s has nothing in common with rugby league, in fact their is less in common with 7′s than 15′s. Every contact situation in 7′s sees a contest for possession, their is only 7 players on the field not 13, their is still lineouts, there is no lineouts in rugby league. There is little kicking in rugby 7′s, there are over 40 kicks per game in rugby league. I’m not sure what is similar between the 2 sports at all. It’s like saying that netball and basketball ate similar because the ball goes through a hoop.
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May 16th 2012 @ 9:51am
Jazz said | May 16th 2012 @ 9:51am | Report comment
There are 20,000 of us that play league in NZ.
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May 16th 2012 @ 10:53am
allblackfan said | May 16th 2012 @ 10:53am | Report comment
fiji’s obsession with sevens saw its XVs game suffer.
The moment fiji decided to focus on XVs (ie World Cups), its sevens team suffered.
May 16th 2012 @ 10:58am
mania said | May 16th 2012 @ 10:58am | Report comment
samoa have the balance. no where near NZ’s levels but they’re up there on the 7′s circuit as well as competing well at 15′s. considering their limited resources i reckon they’re doing well.
fiji’s other problems is 7′s is more popular than 15′s. bainimarama delayed his coup a day to go watch a sevens tournament. fiji styles are definately in effect in fiji
May 16th 2012 @ 1:10pm
Moreton Bait said | May 16th 2012 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
10s provides a better balance between forward and back play whilst retaining the speed, skills and short game times of typical 7s matches and tournaments. 5 forwards (5 person scrum) + 5 backs, 10 minute halves, drop kicks, rolling subs
10s would have provided a better “window” on the game at Olympic level, but hey, in terms of international exposure, 7s will do to for now.
I think Australia will struggle to qualify for the Olympics 7s tournament, unless digits are extracted and more development happens fast.
May 16th 2012 @ 1:10pm
jeznez said | May 16th 2012 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
jmac,
Is this a typo?
“It could be that 7s end up being the truly global sport, which is the wish of anyone involved with 15s rugby”
Certainly that isn’t my wish at all. I like my 15s thankyou very much and want it to remain the main code of Union. 7s is ok for having in the background while running rampant through the South Stand but bores the hell out of me when I watch too much of it.
May 16th 2012 @ 1:17pm
The Great G Nepia said | May 16th 2012 @ 1:17pm | Report comment
I don’t think Sevens is going to harm 15s at all. In fact, the opposite. They both fill different market spaces – 15s for the traditionalists in the traditional markets, while sevens in the emerging new markets, the non-traditional market areas. In fact you could say that sevens has taken the global market space that League was after, being an alternative to Union 15s. The growth of sevens will bring huge money into the IRB, in terms of sponsorship and broadcast money, let alone the funding to local unions through the connection and businesses. It’s pretty obvious the sevens circuit will double in size to say 20 tournaments per year. People know that 7s and 15s are the same thing, ie union and run by the IRB, so both will compliment each other well.
May 16th 2012 @ 1:41pm
hotdog said | May 16th 2012 @ 1:41pm | Report comment
Sevens is pure gold for rugby ! I grew up mainly with 15s, but I played a little bit of sevens (10-12 tournaments such as the Byron Bay sevens). I can’t see sevens doing anything but good for 15s and obviously for sevens itself. Sevens rugby is a fantastic game to play and watch and the sooner Australia directs more resources into sevens the better.
In fact, I’d love to see a 6-8 tournament sevens series played from October to the end of December across Australia and New Zealand. The Aust and NZ Super rugby sides could provide a team each, along with a bunch of invitational sides from fiji, tonga, samoa, hong kong, singapore etc. Maybe even invite some of the NRL sides to play??
Look at the progress sevens has made in the US in the last three years since olympic admission. One way or another, sevens is going global !!