Sevens Olympic Format?

[Melhor Time]

The World Cup Sevens in Dubai operated on a 4 day system of 24 teams split into 4 pools of 6.

With Sevens in the Olympics the Sevens World Cup will mnot continue. The final World Cup will be in 2012, potentially in Moscow, Russia or Edinburgh, Scotland. These two have expressed interests in hosting.

The IRB, upon succeeding in getting rugby into the Olympics starting at Rio de Janeiro 2016 said that they want the format to be a 4 day event. Therefore, the logical assumption is that they want to simply 'photocopy' the Sevens World Cup and have it operate identically at the Olympics. I would support this, I think 24 teams is great. It will certainly be expanded to 32 or more in no time.

Would the host automatically qualify? I assume that no, in the Olympics they would not. However, it could potentially happen. Brazil will have a womens team in 2016 without doubt.

 

[Jethro]

Hard to see how they are going to run with this one. On the one hand huge show piece they'll want good rugby being played with no blow outs, on the other huge opportunity to promote the game into the "third tier". Not sure how Olympics work, at least in Rugby don't the hosting nation automatically get a place?

I would run with a 24 team first up, six years is certainly long enough for nations like Uruguy(?), Nambia, and Kenya to put their programs in place and be competitive. Guess we'll have some sort of regional quota system similar to the one Football uses to select the teams. Be interesting to see who steps up to the plate through the next few years, picking the Northern Europeans to suddenly start taking more of an interest, along with Korea.

 

[Dexter Tauvao]

This is an 'out of it' suggestion?
But maybe having a 32 team comp, with four pools of eight??

This might extend the sevens to a six (or ironcly) seven day competition? And more pool games for teams?
That would mean the top two teams from each pool advance to the quarter finals?
(as olympics only go by Gold-Bronze perhaps no need for the plate, bowl etc?)

But if 2016 is *part* of the IRB cricuit, Id say stick to A Hong Kong or Dubai format of 24 with 6 pools.??

 

[theo]

So far, the IOC has commented that the 2016 Olympics will only have 12 teams in competition with a slightly different format to what we've become used to on the IRB Series. If so, they are really missing out. The Hong Kong format, with 24 teams, is an excellent model that could easily be used in the Olympics. Hopefully they'll reconsider, because if there are only 12 teams in the competition then some of the big rugby powers will be in jeopardy of missing the big dance.

The qualification process is also something that has yet to be fleshed out. Will they use the IRB Series as the qualifier? Or will there be separate qualifying tournaments? It could be a greuling process.

Here's a link to an article where the format is discussed.

http://www.irb.com/irbsevens/columnist/newsid=2036840.html#rogge+sevens+will+bring+value+games

Six years is a long way off, but the qualification process might come up alot faster than we expect. Expecially if it is a long and drawn out affair.

 

[gingergenius]

Well the Olympics takes place over 2 weeks, rather than a long weekend, so potentially they can have a larger tournament without the risk of the players getting tired.

I'd suggest 2 pool stages, with 32 teams.

You'd have 3 levels of seeds, and if we based this on last year's world series results, taking nation changes into account, then you get:

1st seeds: South Africa, Fiji, Great Britain, New Zealand, Argentina, Kenya, Samoa, Australia

2nd seeds: USA, Portugal, France, Tonga, Canada, Cook Islands, Zimbabwe, Japan

3rd seeds: host nation (Brazil), Georgia, Uruguay, Germany, Niue, Mexico, Tunisia, Uruguay, and then 8 more teams made up of members of the Arabian Gulf who are good enough, members of the West Indies, and/ or China/ Sri Lanka/ Taiwan/ South Korea/ Spain.

8 groups would have one member from the first two seed levels, and two from the bottom, so an example of a group could be South Africa, USA, Brazil, Niue. Having the host nation automatically qualify is really important if rugby is to build. There will be a party atmosphere around in the 7s anyway, and awareness of rugby will already be much higher. With their own team to cheer on, even if it is for 3 matches, the hosts would be far more connected with the event, and that teams' performance could kickstart them competing more regularly on the 7s circuit.

After the initial group stages, you'd expect all the small nations to have gone out. Since its Olympic, they won't have a plate, but the experience for them would be great, and there'll be at least one game in the pool that they can think of winning. After this, I'd have another pool stage with the 16 remaining teams (where the competition can get serious), and then QF, SF, Final. So the finalists would play 9 games in total, and everyone would have at least 3.

 

[jaimeduque]

but what happens if a nation like Ireland, which doesn't feature in the world series, decides to enter the comp? France could certainly start paying more attention to sevens at the olympics. My bet is that they'll try to get all the "core nations" to put the best team they can possibly put together (i.e if it were today they'd try to have Habana with the boks and Carter with the ABs) so they can sell rugby to a larger crowd and ensure the game stays at the olympics.

It's also really neat that rugby has made it into all the "regional" olympics like the Commonwealth games and in my case the Panamerican games. My country is just starting the national team for this year's Bogotá 7s. Ecuador is still a long way from olympian status, but by god do my people enjoy the mixture of blood, sweat and beer

 

[ceflora]

So far, the IOC has commented that the 2016 Olympics will only have 12 teams in competition with a slightly different format to what we've become used to on the IRB Series. If so, they are really missing out. The Hong Kong format, with 24 teams, is an excellent model that could easily be used in the Olympics. Hopefully they'll reconsider, because if there are only 12 teams in the competition then some of the big rugby powers will be in jeopardy of missing the big dance.

Wales, Scotland, and England would be only one nation, i.e. Great Britain. This would ensure that the 12 would probably be just right to get all the real contenders in. That said, I hope it is much larger than only 12 teams.

 

[BLASICO123]

Well the Olympics takes place over 2 weeks, rather than a long weekend, so potentially they can have a larger tournament without the risk of the players getting tired.

I'd suggest 2 pool stages, with 32 teams.

You'd have 3 levels of seeds, and if we based this on last year's world series results, taking nation changes into account, then you get:

1st seeds: South Africa, Fiji, Great Britain, New Zealand, Argentina, Kenya, Samoa, Australia

2nd seeds: USA, Portugal, France, Tonga, Canada, Cook Islands, Zimbabwe, Japan

3rd seeds: host nation (Brazil), Georgia, Uruguay, Germany, Niue, Mexico, Tunisia, Uruguay, and then 8 more teams made up of members of the Arabian Gulf who are good enough, members of the West Indies, and/ or China/ Sri Lanka/ Taiwan/ South Korea/ Spain.

8 groups would have one member from the first two seed levels, and two from the bottom, so an example of a group could be South Africa, USA, Brazil, Niue. Having the host nation automatically qualify is really important if rugby is to build. There will be a party atmosphere around in the 7s anyway, and awareness of rugby will already be much higher. With their own team to cheer on, even if it is for 3 matches, the hosts would be far more connected with the event, and that teams' performance could kickstart them competing more regularly on the 7s circuit.

After the initial group stages, you'd expect all the small nations to have gone out. Since its Olympic, they won't have a plate, but the experience for them would be great, and there'll be at least one game in the pool that they can think of winning. After this, I'd have another pool stage with the 16 remaining teams (where the competition can get serious), and then QF, SF, Final. So the finalists would play 9 games in total, and everyone would have at least 3.

No my friend. You are forgetting an emergent Spainish 7s team.
Just review latest results.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Disappointed with the 12 team format they have come up with. They could easily do 24 teams like you see at the HK 7's. I just think its a cop out to be fair but I do feel that if its successful then it will be raised to more sides in it. I do suppose they will have to look at qualifying format rather soonish after the 2012 Olympics. It would be difficult to judge how to seed some sides like the Lions if they go with IRB rankings. Also if the GB side does make it then it raises a lot of questions about the rights of the normal Lions because of rights. GB side will be white, blue and red and not just plain red.

 

[theo]

Disappointed with the 12 team format they have come up with. They could easily do 24 teams like you see at the HK 7's. I just think its a cop out to be fair but I do feel that if its successful then it will be raised to more sides in it. I do suppose they will have to look at qualifying format rather soonish after the 2012 Olympics.

Agreed, the 12 team format is disappointing. Having 24 teams is far more inclusive and the tournament can be done in roughly the same amount of time. I also agree that if the tournament is a success (and it will be) that they will give an expanded tournament more thought for 2020. Who knows, if we're lucky they'll make rugby an exhibition sport at the 2012 Olympics and the turnout will be so big that they are forced to look at a different format for 2016.

I think the qualifying process is going to be confusing, because the IOC is going to do their best to get some lesser known nations into the mix. They prefer diversity over quality at times. That could very well mean having some very good sides eliminated in the qualifying process. At the same time it might mean easier roads to the Olmpics for other nations. It hurts my brain to even think about it.

Expanding the tournament field to 24 teams would eliminate much of the drama and still give a handful of emerging nations spots in the tournament.