Chalmers argues there is 'no need' for IRB to scrap World Cup event

0 Comments | Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland), The, Oct 10, 2009

Byline: DAVID FERGUSON

CRAIG Chalmers has urged the International Rugby Board not to dispense with the Rugby World Cup Sevens after the IOC agreed to welcome rugby back into the Olympic Games after a near-century's absence.

The IOC's decision has given a massive boost to the IRB's push to turn rugby into a truly global sport with governments in the major powers of Russia, the USA and China set to inject multi-million pound funding into developing the sport on a much wider scale in their countries. Their funding of sport, generally, follows those aligned with the Olympics and Steve Diamond, the former England A coach and now director of rugby in Russia told The Scotsman this summer that he expected GBP 50 million to be ploughed into the sport in Russia if it was welcomed into the Olympics.

The SRU welcomed the news from Copenhagen as a terrific acknowledgement of the abbreviated form of rugby that was invented in Melrose. However, it is understood that part of the deal to secure the Olympic Games return was a commitment from the IRB that the Games event would be the pinnacle of the sport, and an agreement, therefore, to scrap the Rugby World Cup Sevens.

That tournament was launched at Murrayfield in 1993 and takes place every four years, with the specially-commissioned Melrose Cup awarded to the winners to mark the sport's birthplace. Chalmers, who won 50 caps for Scotland at full Test level and played for the British and Irish Lions, insisted it would be a mistake to drop the World Cup.

He said: "It is great for the sport to be involved in the Olympic Games, but it would be a nonsense to scrap the sevens World Cup. There are World Cups still in football, hockey and other Olympic sports, so there's no need for rugby to do away with the sevens version.

"Now that golf is in, the IOC aren't going to ask for the Open, the US Open or Masters to be dropped, are they? And for all they will talk up the chance to earn an Olympic medal, I think you'll find that Tiger Woods would still put one of the majors ahead of a gold medal.

"It's the same in tennis, where the Grand Slam titles will still mean more to Andy Murray and Roger Federer than the Olympic tennis crown. That's just the way it is.

"The Olympics is about competing as Great Britain for guys here, so it will be a different thing in rugby to winning a World Cup sevens medal with Scotland, and one shouldn't be devalued because of the other."

Scotland will continue to compete on the IRB World Sevens Series but come together under the Great Britain banner for 2016 with Wales and Northern Ireland, whose players can choose whether they wish to represent Ireland or GB.

SRU chief executive Gordon McKie commented: "As the country that bequeathed seven-a-side rugby to the world [the SRU] is naturally delighted to hear of today's decision by the IOC to welcome rugby anew to the Olympic family."

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