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

[JoshMartini007 2,533]

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 355]

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 355]

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 355]

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.

[NearPup 3,020]

17 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

But I agree that 12 teams is too small. If you are going to have team sports like these at the Games and want them to grow, you need to stop penny pinching the number of qualifiers.

Given the world series is only 12 teams I really don't think the Olympics needs to be any bigger than that.

[mpjmcevoy 362]

59 minutes ago, Epic Failure said:

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.

It was, and the original 'pitch' was to not have a world cup any more, and just the Olympics - but wiser heads prevailed as by the time the sport had got into the Games, everyone - IOC included - agreed it would be a backward step to end the world Cup - instead, arguably with the European Games, you're moving to a set of parallel competitions - the Olympics is the 'showcase', the World Cup is the World Championship, and the World Series is the pro circuit.

[Epic Failure 355]

2 hours ago, NearPup said:

Given the world series is only 12 teams I really don't think the Olympics needs to be any bigger than that.

In fairness, this is the first season of it being 12 teams. It's been 16 teams until now.

 

And there's the 12 team Challenger tour as well.

[Epic Failure 355]

2 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

It was, and the original 'pitch' was to not have a world cup any more, and just the Olympics - but wiser heads prevailed as by the time the sport had got into the Games, everyone - IOC included - agreed it would be a backward step to end the world Cup - instead, arguably with the European Games, you're moving to a set of parallel competitions - the Olympics is the 'showcase', the World Cup is the World Championship, and the World Series is the pro circuit.

I guess my worry is that with that setup the Olympics will always greatly overshadow everything else.

 

I think that is somewhat supported by the fact that Dupont and Hooper want to get into their Olympic teams - I don't remember either rushing to get in the WC team. Obviously the 7s skillset isn't quite the same but I think that shows the mentality in the sport about how the various comps are perceived.

 

I think at heart, I'm just an advocate for bigger fields in any sport.

 

I realise that isn't practical but it just feels more romantic to have more teams having a shot. I can't really explain it any better.

[rajiv 31]

I think an issue for rugby may be that having 7s in the Olympics might mean that many countries will take 7s more seriously than the main 15s game.

I'm particularly thinking of USA and Canada who take the Olympics very seriously but are very ordinary in 15s- they often don't qualify for Rugby World Cups and are 3rd tier at best in normal rugby

I'm sure rugby wants 7s to be seen as lesser than 15s

It would be like 3×3 basketball being taken more seriously than mainstream basketball

A similar thing may happen with cricket.

All cricket fans see Test cricket as the purest and highest form but Olympic cricket will be the abbreviated twenty20 format

 

[Siddhartha Talukdar 229]

4 hours ago, rajiv said:

 

A similar thing may happen with cricket.

All cricket fans see Test cricket as the purest and highest form but Olympic cricket will be the abbreviated twenty20 format

 

I think with Cricket its fine. First Cricket needs to attract more nations and existing smaller nations to invest more in Cricket. T20 Cricket is the only viable format for multi-sport events as it can be completed within two weeks and much more chance of underdog beating better teams and results being known till the last ball. Currently, longer format like 50 over and Test are not much engaging because of huge difference in quality between top 4 nations - Australia, England, India and South Africa and the rest. Once there are much more nations and more investment in Cricket, longer formats will be more engaging