Rogge sympathetic to rugby's Olympic ambitions

[travelling_gerry]

March 30, 2009 - 5:08PM

WELLINGTON - International Olympic President Jacques Rogge said Monday he has "a lot of sympathy" for a call to make rugby sevens an Olympic sport.

But the former player for the Belgian national rugby team said the decision over its inclusion in the 2016 Olympics was not up to him.

"Let me say very clearly I do not vote. I have a lot of sympathy, but I have no vote," Rogge told a press conference in Wellington.

Rugby sevens is one of a number of sports -- including squash, baseball, softball, karate, golf and roller sports -- vying for two spots alongside the 26 existing events in 2016.

A final decision on which sports will be included will be made at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in October.

Speaking in New Zealand, home of the All Blacks, Rogge was effusive about his love for rugby, but stopped short of giving his personal endorsement for the inclusion of rugby sevens in the Olympics.

Rogge, 66, represented Belgium in yachting at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics.
"I did that as well as I could, but I never found the joy in sailing that I found in rugby. Don't ask me why," he said.

"Rugby is a great sport, there is no doubt about that."

The International Rugby Board (IRB) has put forward rugby sevens as a candidate rather than the full 15-player form of the game because of the difficulty of holding a tournament in the two-week span of the Olympics.

The 15-a-side form is also dominated by several teams from the southern hemisphere and Europe, while the field is much more open in sevens. This was proved at the weekend's Hong Kong Sevens when New Zealand were knocked out by Kenya in the quarter-finals of a tournament eventually won by Fiji.

Rogge said to be selected, the sport must be played throughout most of the world, enhance the existing structure of the Olympics, attract spectators and television viewers, and must not be too difficult or expensive to organise.

"Definitely we want a sport with very strong ethical values, we want a sport that makes a very strong business of fighting against doping," he said.

IRB tournament operations manager Beth Coalter said in Hong Kong last week that sevens wholeheartedly supported new anti-doping measures introduced by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Rogge is in New Zealand for an Oceania Olympic Committee general assembly in Queenstown this week.

Rugby sevens, squash, baseball and softball will be making presentations on their bids for inclusion in the Olympics at the Queenstown meeting, which will be attended by Olympic committees from Australia, New Zealand and 13 Pacific island countries.
AFP

http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...261504918.html

[Burgs]

All sounding very hopeful, but I also recall getting to "hopeful" previously!

Assuming all Wallabies available, who would you put up as the Olympic team (if it was this Spring)?
To make it easier you can use this template as a starting point.
By "Forward" you are looking at Backrowers, maybe one tall for the Lineout.

1. Forward
2. Forward
3. Forward
4. Scrumhalf
5. Wing
6. Wing
7. Fullback

8. Forward
9. Forward
10. Utility
11. Back
12. Back

[Burgs]

Without scouring the lists and with a couple of left fields

Burgs "Olympic Sevens:"

1. Rocky Elsom
2. David Pocock
3. George Smith
4. Mat Giteau
5. Digby Ioane
6. Lachlan Turner
7. Cameron Shepherd

8. Phil Waugh
9. Clyde Rathbone
10. Stirling Mortlock
11. James O'Connor
12. Berrick Barnes

[GIGS20]

Don't shoot me Burgs, but I'd put Quade on that field somewhere, I reckon Sevens would be right up his weird-stepping alley maybe ditch Rathbone or Stirlo

[Burgs]

No accounting for taste...

In this instance Stirlo and Clyde are listed more as fast "Forwards" than Backs, they were the "left fields" alluded to.

I can appreciate the argument for him, and probably Beale, but if it is literally going to be the best in the World including all Test players then I can see them standing up to it, especially in Defence.

I think if the best 15's players also played 7's it would be a more structured affair with probably half of the current "flair", with bigger Backs, almost a Fullback, Scrumhalf and five Opensides.
Multi phase three man rucks etc.

Anyway, each to their own

[GIGS20]

I can see where you're going, but the Flair WILL occur, you can't tell me Fiji will play sevens any different!

I reckon NZ will also be picking a 'lively' side. It'd be a hard game to tighten up given the amount of room available for guys like Sivivatu and Masaga to blast through.

[AndyS]

I'd want to see lots of trials though. Watching the Commonwealth games version, I am not convinced that the thinking and conditioning the players bring from S14/Wallabies is necessarily a good fit for a sevens tournament. Flair is a perfect example - it can be a major liability in 15s and gets trained out by very structured teams. Can the player just switch it back on? Is there some other lad, maybe in the Academies, that hasn't had it all trained out yet and can run all day? And it will be at the start of our Test campaign (or the business end of an expanded S14) - we just going to chuck them that year?

It is rugbys T20 - your Test team might suck at it...

[Sheikh]

I've not followed sevens that much recently, but it used to be the players who were on the verge of the full international team, but few actual internationals. The explosive style of the game calls for younger players who aren't so inhibited (apart from the Fijians, who play that way all their career!)

[beige]

I've not followed sevens that much recently, but it used to be the players who were on the verge of the full international team, but few actual internationals. The explosive style of the game calls for younger players who aren't so inhibited (apart from the Fijians, who play that way all their career!)

In this country it's players on the verge of fringe Super 14 squad selection nowadays

[TOCC]

Without scouring the lists and with a couple of left fields

Burgs "Olympic Sevens:"

1. Rocky Elsom
2. David Pocock
3. George Smith
4. Mat Giteau
5. Digby Ioane
6. Lachlan Turner
7. Cameron Shepherd

8. Phil Waugh
9. Clyde Rathbone
10. Stirling Mortlock
11. James O'Connor
12. Berrick Barnes

1. Scott Higginbotham
2. David Pocock
3. George Smith
4. Mat Giteau
5. Digby Ioane
6. Peter Hynes
7. Drew Mitchell

8. Timana Tahu
9. Lachlan Turner
10. Stirling Mortlock
11. Quade Cooper
12. Lote Tuqiri

[Burgs]

Who're you reserve Forwards?