Two of sport's greatest institutions - the Olympics and the British Lions - will come together if the International Rugby Board (IRB) succeed in their efforts to have sevens included in the 2016 Games. The IRB have stepped up their campaign to earn one of the two available places, and their chairman Bernard Lapasset has spent the last three weeks in Beijing, meeting more than 70 Olympic delegates from around the world.
Rugby sevens is shortlisted alongside karate, squash, golf, baseball, softball and roller-sports to join an expanded Olympic programme for 2016. A final decision will be made next year. A British sevens squad would include the cream of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - virtually a mini-Lions team. The IRB insist there would be no issues over player release for the competition because the clubs would be obliged to make their big names available.
The Olympic football tournament was marred by a club-versus-country row with Barcelona, Schalke and Werder Bremen taking their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. But the IRB are confident no such problems will occur. They are looking to include the Olympics in Regulation Nine, which covers the release of players for international events. However, the campaign for Olympic inclusion also has the backing of the International Rugby Players' Union, the English clubs' body Premier Rugby and the Rugby Football Union.
"We are the governing body for sport in England but we have got a wider perspective and we want to see the game develop worldwide," said Martyn Thomas, the RFU management board chairman. "If we had the opportunity I am sure all the governing bodies would want to see a Great Britain team at the Olympics. In a sense we have a precedent with the British Lions. I am sure everyone would be right behind it."
The IRB's proposal is to run a 16-team men and women's competition over three days in the first week of the Olympics. The IRB would also consider the future of the Rugby World Cup Sevens to ensure Olympic gold remains the ultimate prize. Critics claim rugby, which is dominated at Test level by eight foundation unions, is not global enough to deserve inclusion at the Olympic Games. But the IRB point to the growth of sevens in Asia and Spanish-speaking countries, with its inclusion in the World Games, the Asian Games and next year's Pan-American Games. It is already a core sport in the Commonwealth Games.
IRB chief executive Mike Miller said: "We have 116 member unions. We invest millions every year on the development of the game around the world. Rugby is played everywhere. Try going to the Georgia-Russia game in March, which is a sell out, and tell them rugby is an English or Commonwealth game." Its inclusion would certainly extend the medal-winning opportunities for countries like Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Kenya who all play sevens rugby.
The IRB also feel Lapasset's ability to converse with IOC members in all three official Olympic languages - English, French and Spanish - was also helping to break down the notion of rugby as Anglocentric. Lapasset has been busy in Beijing explaining his belief that rugby's inclusion in the programme would be mutually beneficial for his sport and the Olympics. "Sevens is probably the most important new global sport they could include in the Olympic programme, a sport with values for young people," he said.
The IRB now plan to present their case to all four bidding cities for 2016 - Madrid, Tokyo, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro - and they will ask each of their members' National Olympic committees to write to explain rugby's case. Rugby was last an Olympic sport in 1924, when the US beat France in Paris. * Agencies