Rogge: "Sevens will bring value to the Games"

Of all the 120,000 fans attending the three days of the Cathay Pacific / Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens at the weekend, by far the most high profile and significant was IOC President Jacques Rogge.

On 9 October last year Rogge was the man who uttered the words every rugby fan, player, coach and administrator wanted to hear - that Sevens had been voted into the sporting programme of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

A former international for his native Belgium, Rogge is a fan of the game and it was largely in that capacity that he attended his first ever Hong Kong Sevens, a tournament he had watched countless times before on television. And he was impressed by what he saw at the famous So Kon Po Stadium.

"My expectations are first of all in the quality of the game and I think that the field (of teams) is very strong," Rogge said.

"Rugby Sevens tends to go more and more to even teams. There's no big difference any more, which was the case a couple of years ago, so that's a very good thing, more and more teams are capable of achieving a victory."

As well as referencing the likes of Kenya, Hong Kong, Russia and Portugal, who all again impressed, Rogge's words can also be attributed to Fiji and Samoa, both semi finalists and relative giants in Sevens but minnows in Olympic terms.

"Rugby Sevens will bring an added value to the Games, and vice versa the Games will bring an added value to Sevens and the development of the sport," added Rogge, who was also impressed by the atmosphere in the stands.

According to Rogge, Rugby Sevens will be an 'important competition' during the Games in 2016, but will also have to fit in with the other 27 sports, much like it does at other multisport events such as the Commonwealth Games.

The IOC President spoke of a 12-team format for both men's and women's Sevens, but was quick to allay the inevitable fears of smaller rugby nations by stressing the IOC's preference for making the competition open to all.

Universalilty key to Sevens and Olympic Games

"We advocate the fact that you should not go by quality alone," he said.

"We always plead for a universality at the Games so we definitely want teams from all the continents participating.

"And this is a common policy for all sports. If we were to just take the best 100 metre sprinters we'd end up with only Americans and Jamaicans and people from other countries would have no chance and that is why we restrict the number of athletes (in athletics) to three per country (per discipline).

"Jamaica could field seven or eight that fit into the top 10 in the world, but that would not be to the benefit of the Games so by restricting a little bit what I would call the 'world ranking list' we open up for participation of other continents."

All of which points to a rigorous qualification system and one that could potentially involve far more countries than the 117 current Member Unions of the International Rugby Board - two key aspects of the IRB's current Strategic Review of the entire Sevens game.

"First we would focus with the IRB on the development of the sport and the promotion of rugby around the world, that's what we will begin with, and that will definitely lead to more Rugby in more and more nations and the quality of these nations will augment," added Rogge.

"Nations will become closer together in quality and then the last phase will be to find the ideal qualification system and the final format of the Games."

Sitting with Rogge for much of the weekend in Hong Kong was IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset, who was confident that the IOC President went away with a positive impression of the Game.

"He's very impressed with the action. He knows the world of rugby, he used to be a player himself and the Sevens is a part of his life," said Lapasset.

"He's very interested in how we are promoting Sevens around the world and giving new opportunities to teams like Thailand and Korea. It's that universality which is very important to the Olympic movement, and that is also what we are trying to achieve with Rugby Sevens."

Listen to Rogge on this week's IRB Total Rugby Radio show..