Men's Rugby Sevens Tournament at the Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024

[MHSN 3,785]

I'm not a Rugby expert like most of you guys. I watch some matches every World Cup and the Olympics. know the basic rules etc

 

from my uneducated view, as a random fan, I think Rugby 7s needs some changes. we rarely see drop goals or penalties in this version (at some point I thought that's not even in the 7s rules ) isn't it better to give 1 pt to each try and make it more understandable for amateur fans? 

and about the time, it's really annoying that in a 14-minutes match they do NOT stop the clock when the match is stopped. I would also suggest a smaller field. 

 

You probably hate my ideas but that's just what I thought after watching 2 days of rugby sevens  

[Cinnamon Bun 911]

3 hours ago, Dkats said:

Hahaha I remember that. That guy went QUIET 

Yeah he didn't half go quiet. I think he thought this was one of those forums where we constantly shove our opinions down eachother's throats and aggressive message eachother, but when he found out (in the hardest way possible) that we're one of the civilised ones he just faded out of existence. 

[NaBUru38 219]

The Teros just made too many ball handling errors. At least the France match was close.

 

As for rules, the boring part of sevens is that a good sprinter can beat a team of good but not so fast players.

 

I have seen a few rugby 10s matches and I enjoy them more than sevens. Players need good teamwork to advance, yet it's much faster than 15s.

 

However, I've been told by a Uruguayan female players that rugby 10 is much more prone to injuries than sevens.

[Cinnamon Bun 911]

2 hours ago, MHSN said:

I'm not a Rugby expert like most of you guys. I watch some matches every World Cup and the Olympics. know the basic rules etc

 

from my uneducated view, as a random fan, I think Rugby 7s needs some changes. we rarely see drop goals or penalties in this version (at some point I thought that's not even in the 7s rules ) isn't it better to give 1 pt to each try and make it more understandable for amateur fans? 

and about the time, it's really annoying that in a 14-minutes match they do NOT stop the clock when the match is stopped. I would also suggest a smaller field. 

 

You probably hate my ideas but that's just what I thought after watching 2 days of rugby sevens  

No you do have some good points there apart from the second one and the last one. As an avid watcher of rugby, mainly league, this is one of the reasons why I think the 9s format would suit the games perfectly and arguably better than 7s. The matches are longer, the clock is stopped more frequently when play has halted and drop goals are encouraged more and play a more frequent role in the game of rugby league compared to union. 

Edited July 26, 2024 by Cinnamon Bun

[Cinnamon Bun 911]

3 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

In all honesty, two of the best four teams are gone. Fiji Ireland was a stone cold classic - as was NZL South Africa.

 

Still, this tournament has been a great advertisement for the format, most 'casuals' i've spoken to have absolutely loved it, and a number have mentioned that it serves as almost a perfect lead in to the Olympics. I still don't agree with teams being already out before the Opening Ceremony, but the idea of using the Athletics Stadium in Week one for Sevens seems to work very well. Now if we could only get some of the energy- and the crowds -  into the SVNS

Rugby sevens is always one of best fan experiences at any multi sports event. When I went at the 2022 Commies the atmosphere was like nothing I'd ever experienced before, with the best moment coming when Sri Lanka men's scored against NZ men's to lead the match (they ended up losing 95 - 5) and everyone in the stadium went into absolute pandemonium. I'm going on Monday for the Women's pool stage and am hoping for a similar atmosphere there. 

 

The success of the tournament got me thinking about the potential inclusion of 9s, and I think something that would really well would be to have the 7s in the first week and the 9s in the second week. With how well the 2 codes complement eachother, fans will easily be able to get on board and would come in their thousands to each session over the 2 weeks which would be massive in helping get the codes of union and league back on the map after their recent struggles. It also means more rugby, which is always good news. 

[Josh 11,972]

2 hours ago, MHSN said:

I'm not a Rugby expert like most of you guys. I watch some matches every World Cup and the Olympics. know the basic rules etc

 

from my uneducated view, as a random fan, I think Rugby 7s needs some changes. we rarely see drop goals or penalties in this version (at some point I thought that's not even in the 7s rules ) isn't it better to give 1 pt to each try and make it more understandable for amateur fans? 

and about the time, it's really annoying that in a 14-minutes match they do NOT stop the clock when the match is stopped. I would also suggest a smaller field. 

 

You probably hate my ideas but that's just what I thought after watching 2 days of rugby sevens  

I agree with this. 

[De_Gambassi 1,282]

8 hours ago, MHSN said:

I'm not a Rugby expert like most of you guys. I watch some matches every World Cup and the Olympics. know the basic rules etc

 

from my uneducated view, as a random fan, I think Rugby 7s needs some changes. we rarely see drop goals or penalties in this version (at some point I thought that's not even in the 7s rules ) isn't it better to give 1 pt to each try and make it more understandable for amateur fans? 

and about the time, it's really annoying that in a 14-minutes match they do NOT stop the clock when the match is stopped. I would also suggest a smaller field. 

 

You probably hate my ideas but that's just what I thought after watching 2 days of rugby sevens  

They're not bad propositions to be honest, but they are either impractical (longer playing time when the sport is very demanding on the body or smaller fields within already existing stadiums) or politically very unlikely (changing the points system from the 15-a-side game).

 

For one, i much prefer rugby union for precisely its diversity of scoring and its momentum building. But I'd say rugby seven as an olympic event is perfectly fine.

 

EDIT: also to add a bit of rugby historical background for people puzzled by the try/conversion dynamic. Originally, a "try", was just that : a try for kicking over the bars, the try by itself didn't award any point. World Rugby is not going to throw that away.

Edited July 26, 2024 by De_Gambassi

[Epic Failure 359]

The pitch and timing issues go hand in hand. A smaller pitch makes it easier to defend, which reduces some of the spectacle. But a longer game would get too exhausting.

 

We saw from the Fiji v Ireland game how quickly a team can score in 7s, so I'm not sure that a stopped clock is really necessary.

[stratocumulus 68]

And here you have a quick summary of rugby rules if you needed to explain it to your non-sport-fans-friends before Saturday's finals;)
 

 

[stratocumulus 68]

1 hour ago, Epic Failure said:

The pitch and timing issues go hand in hand. A smaller pitch makes it easier to defend, which reduces some of the spectacle. But a longer game would get too exhausting.

Well, I think that would be a new dimension to deal with - aka "not a bug but a feature". Maybe you would decide then to play passively in the initial phases and use the remainder of your power to strike back against your exhausted opponent in the final minutes?

 

I believe 10 instead of 7 minutes would be a decent change to start with. Now it seems a little like a "demo version" of the game (which I know it is to some extent :D). And it looks strange if you have 3mins of added time when you actually should play 7, so it is 40% more, equivalent to some 20min additional time in football. Would we see that in a football game, we would all go crazy, wouldn't we?;)

 

In a team sport where you have combined effort of a number of people it feels too trivial when 4 years of work come down to a performance as short as 2x7min (I think of NZ now especially). There could be more epic in it and there is definitely potential for it