Sevens exposed to IPL-style raid

[travelling_gerry]

Sevens exposed to IPL-style raid

• Wayne Smith, Rugby union editor
• From: The Australian
• May 13, 2010 12:00AM

THE introduction of sevens rugby to the Olympic sports program has ignited a bidding war between cities to host the Australian leg of the IRB Sevens circuit, with the Gold Coast and Sydney attempting to take the tournament away from Adelaide.

But as delighted as ARU boss John O'Neill is to have received bids from the Queensland Events Corporation and Events NSW, he recognises the raised level of interest in the tournament demonstrates the need for rugby authorities to take charge of sevens before it falls victim to an IPL-style takeover. "If we don't do something, entrepreneurs will come in and do it instead," said O'Neill, who has raised his concerns in writing with IRB president Bernard Lapasset and will take up the matter with him at the IRB Council meeting in London this week.
In particular, O'Neill believes the IRB needs to harness the introduction of sevens to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics program to the awarding of the 2019 Rugby World Cup to Japan to accelerate the spread of rugby in Asia.


"For a long while now, rugby's ambitions have been to expand the game into developing markets and while progress has been slower than anyone would have imagined, sevens is the ideal vehicle to take the game into Asia," he said. "There is only one Asian nation ranked in the top 20 (13th-ranked Japan) and in the short term it's clear most Asian players aren't built to play 15-a-side rugby competitively at the top level. But it is a different matter entirely in sevens football, where size does not matter so much."
O'Neill is hoping to persuade the IRB to adopt a regional approach to sevens.
"It happens in sports like tennis and golf so there is no reason why it could not work in rugby, with the IRB looking at Asia-Pacific as one region," he said.
"You could envisage a regional circuit based around Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Sydney and the Gold Coast."
It is not coincidental O'Neill mentioned three Chinese cities, with the ARU recognising China as a potential powerhouse of the sport. Significantly, ARU high performance manager David Nucifora met with Chinese Rugby Union officials at the recent Hong Kong Sevens and as a result of that meeting, China is to send its sevens team to train at the AIS with the Australian sevens squad.
O'Neill said it was important that the Australian sevens team featured some stars of the game - and certainly such players as Matt Giteau, Quade Cooper, Will Genia and James O'Connor would do wonders for the profile of the Australians at the Commonwealth Games in October.
But he also believed the shortened version of the game would throw up its own stars, much as Twenty20 cricket has catapulted David Warner to fame.
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said yesterday the intention was to involve some 15-a-side specialists in the Delhi squad but whether they were topline Wallabies or those on the fringes of national selection would depend on the outcome of talks with Australian sevens coach Michael O'Connor.
"But anyone who goes to the Commonwealth Games won't be precluded from also going on the (Wallabies) spring tour," Deans said. O'Neill also revealed the ARU is keen to tap into existing tribal allegiances by basing an Australian sevens championship around the Premier Rugby clubs in Sydney and Brisbane.


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225865742350

[Burgs]

Would hate to see the tournament go to Sydney, Adelaide is able to make it a city feature event (and so could the Gold Coast for that matter but prefer Adelaide to keep it) where as Sydney would just absorb it like a big black hole.
Surprised Melbourne hasn't been mentioned because they really love their sport down there...

[Burgs]

Aus Sevens:

1. Matt Hodgson
2. David Pocock
3. Richard Brown
4. Will Genia
5. Quade Cooper
6. Matt Giteau
7. James O'Connor

8. Nathan Charles
9. George Smith
10. Brett Sheehan
11. Kurtley Beale
12. Rod Davies

That should do it...

[AndyS]

Would hate to see the tournament go to Sydney, Adelaide is able to make it a city feature event (and so could the Gold Coast for that matter but prefer Adelaide to keep it) where as Sydney would just absorb it like a big black hole.
Surprised Melbourne hasn't been mentioned because they really love their sport down there...

They should all be told to stuff themselves as bandwagoners. Adelaide gave it a home when everyone else turned up their nose and should have a mortgage on it for as long as they like.

[beige]

Even longer - I remember Adelaide hosting the International Provincial Sevens back in 1996 that featured teams such as Namoli from Fiji and Western Province from South Africa... not to mention a Counties Manukau sided featuring Joeli Vidiri and one Jonah Lomu. They were already getting 5 digit crowds back then at Hindmarsh Stadium.

With Super XV teams in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth, the Adelaide Sevens just fills that geographical gap.

With regards to the "IPL" thing, that is a worry - you can guarantee some cowboy will be sniffing around post 2016... hopefully the IRB has the structures in place to fight that off.

[AndyS]

I would have thought before an IPL style Sevens tournament would be possible there would have to be a massive groundswell of support. The IPL works because of a billion cricket-mad indians and until there is a reasonable approximation for Sevens it is unlikely to be as wild a ride. Can't see it just yet, even with Olympic inclusion, so I would imagine that anyone trying it would need the assistance of the national bodies anyway. So long as they were getting a slice of the money though, I doubt there is much the national bodies wouldn't do.