Men's Rugby Sevens Qualification to Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024 Road to Paris 2024

[SalamAkhi 284]

8 hours ago, Ogreman said:

 

Kenya beating South Africa wasn't that much of a shock though. South Africa's form in the buildup had been terrible. They have bounced back a bit this season but towards the end of last year's sevens series South Africa were really not that much better than Kenya.

 

The surprising part was that Kenya was probably in a en even worse form going in. They're starting to rebuild with fresh players. 

 

7 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

I mean, my position is that all of the top 10 deserve a spot. Because I'd expand the tournament to 20 teams, to mirror the 15 a side WC.

 

Give the first 12 spots to the top 12 in the rankings, then you open it to 8 regional qualifiers from there. I think there's easily enough competitive teams to do that.

Format would be hideous. Go for 16, or 24 like WC or old HK but stop trying to mirror the broken 15-a-side game. And this is definitely out of the question in the Olympics. 

[Epic Failure 98]

18 minutes ago, SalamAkhi said:

The surprising part was that Kenya was probably in a en even worse form going in. They're starting to rebuild with fresh players. 

 

Format would be hideous. Go for 16, or 24 like WC or old HK but stop trying to mirror the broken 15-a-side game. And this is definitely out of the question in the Olympics. 

I mean a 20 team tournament would literally be 4 groups of 5. Top 2 in each get to the QFs. Not that hideous a format. I'd have no problem with a 24 team tournament either.

 

Obviously neither is going to happen with the IOC being what it is.

[Epic Failure 98]

41 minutes ago, SalamAkhi said:

Again I don't agree. HK should have won the Asian Qualifier but they're renown chokers. Chile could have beaten Uruguay too. Actually we'll see in Madrid how both these teams rank compared to the USA/Spain/Samoa/Canada.

 

There's another round of the challenger before Madrid isn't there? So the teams aren't yet decided for Madrid, if I'm remembering correctly.

[dodge 755]

I like the qualification format. For team sports, there’s always going to be “top” teams that don’t qualify (look at how few European football nations can qualify for example). 
 

In rugby, the season long format ensures the best teams go through. Then they have a continental qualifier. And a final world qualifier. 3 chances for a “top” nation is pretty loose and those who don’t qualify can’t blame anyone but themselves 

[mpjmcevoy 222]

4 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

I mean a 20 team tournament would literally be 4 groups of 5. Top 2 in each get to the QFs. Not that hideous a format. I'd have no problem with a 24 team tournament either.

 

Obviously neither is going to happen with the IOC being what it is.

One has to remember that, although it is global, the Olympic Games is not a 'world championships' for the sport - it's not supposed to be, and given sevens has arguably two world championship formats already - world series and world 7s cup - it doesn't need to be.

 

Obviously, as an Olympic comp, it is important in its own right, but it is also, like most of the teams sports, a big demonstrated event - a taster to create more interest in the sport. And as such it is going to e - and ought to be  - smaller, and more driven by representation than pure merit.

[SalamAkhi 284]

5 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

I mean a 20 team tournament would literally be 4 groups of 5. Top 2 in each get to the QFs.

Impossible. A 7s tournament is 6 matches maximum. With this format you would go up to 7. 

[JoshMartini007 2,274]

1 hour ago, SalamAkhi said:

Impossible. A 7s tournament is 6 matches maximum. With this format you would go up to 7. 

 

Is this an actual rule? Could they not play over 3-4 days or add a rest day in between?

 

Regardless, despite the men's depth, I don't see any true team sport besides football having more than 12 entrants. Not to mention that the women's side does not have this kind of depth.

[Epic Failure 98]

4 hours ago, dodge said:

I like the qualification format. For team sports, there’s always going to be “top” teams that don’t qualify (look at how few European football nations can qualify for example). 
 

In rugby, the season long format ensures the best teams go through. Then they have a continental qualifier. And a final world qualifier. 3 chances for a “top” nation is pretty loose and those who don’t qualify can’t blame anyone but themselves 

Women's football is another sport where I have similar views to this.

[Epic Failure 98]

2 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

One has to remember that, although it is global, the Olympic Games is not a 'world championships' for the sport - it's not supposed to be, and given sevens has arguably two world championship formats already - world series and world 7s cup - it doesn't need to be.

 

Obviously, as an Olympic comp, it is important in its own right, but it is also, like most of the teams sports, a big demonstrated event - a taster to create more interest in the sport. And as such it is going to e - and ought to be  - smaller, and more driven by representation than pure merit.

But wasn't part of the IRB's desire to see 7s in the Olympics at least partially to give it a 'marquee' event? I could be completely wrong here but I strongly suspect more people will watch the Olympic tournaments than watch the world series or the world cup.

 

That's central to my argument really - I don't have the same problems with men's football where the Olympics clearly aren't the peak. I have more of an issue on the women's side where it still somewhat is, although in recent years it's becoming less of an issue with the strong growth of the women's game.

[Epic Failure 98]

1 hour ago, SalamAkhi said:

Impossible. A 7s tournament is 6 matches maximum. With this format you would go up to 7. 

I mean the 7s world cup has literally been a 10 match tournament (in 1993). It then went to 7 matches in 97, 8 matches in 2001 & 2005, 6 matches in 2009 & 2013 and finally 4 matches in the last 2 editions.

 

So there's absolutely no reason it couldn't be different in the Olympics.