The Americans are gearing up for 7’s rugby in Rio – Ireland should be too, says journalist Brendan Grehan.
As the feel-good factor from the London Olympics continues with the Paralympics, I have watched a YouTube video a few times.
Produced as a promotional video for USA Rugby, 'The American Rugby Tradition' is a short well-scripted video with various members of the current USA Eagles squad reminding the rugby public that the Eagles are the current Olympic champions (1924).
Of course in 2016, they will be playing the seven-a-side game. As Rugby is now an Olympic sport, it really opens up to the game to parts of the world it hasn't traditionally reached. Nigel Melville and the rest of his team at USA Rugby know that it is a really big deal for an athlete in the USA to make their Olympic team and the video is a rallying call for athletes in other disciplines to take up the oval ball for the old, red, white and blue.
You might ask why I started this piece with a preamble about USA rugby, but if you search YouTube, you will be hard-pressed to find an IRFU video calling on people to get on board for Rio. Why?
It remains to be seen if the IRFU have developed any kind of strategy for having a men’s team playing at the highest level. A few years ago, I remember there was some press about an Irish team competing at FIRA competition in Germany. For the IRFU to put together a team to compete at sevens level would mean that the team would have to be playing on the world sevens circuit.
To offer a meaningful challenge, players would have to be taken from each of the provincial and academy squads, meaning that they would be unavailable for PRO12 and Heineken games during the season. I don't believe that a squad of AIL players would be good enough and could the Irish sporting public stomach regular defeats to rugby 'minnows' like Spain, Portugal and Russia, who are developing exponentially at the abridged code.
With Notre Dame and Navy fans last weekend in town, it’s a no-brainer for the government and the IRFU to apply for a place as host city for the world sevens circuit. Former Leinster, Scotland and Ulster coach, Matt Williams has been calling for this for some time. A weekend of sevens in a packed Lansdowne be something to look forward to not just for the fans but the good burghers of D4 and beyond.
One thing that screams at us from every Olympics and what John Treacy and the Sports Council are trying to do is to concentrate on the sports we have medal chances in. Boxing, sailing, equestrian, race walking, modern pentathlon and now we have a platinum-edged opportunity with rugby sevens.
The women’s team are blazing a trail across Europe and could be possible medallists in Rio, it's time for the boys to step up to the plate. If we could get a team playing in the World Sevens series, I would imagine wherever they play, they would be supported by representatives of the new and old Irish diaspora.
So please Philip Browne, can we have a men’s sevens team.
© Brendan Grehan (@brendanxavier on Twitter)
