Fiji provide fireworks as rugby thrills on its return to Olympics
Brendan Gallagher continues his expert and authoritative look at the history of Rugby Union
THE return of rugby to the Olympics was probably the major good news story of this era and the picture of the Fijian Sevens squad celebrating their nation'sfirst ever Olympic medal one of the enduring images of Rio2016, but frankly rugby has had a strange, unsatisfactory, relationship with the IOC over the decades.
Baron de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, had in many ways been inspired by the game's guiding principles of a mateurism,team work and chivalrous competition and the Frenchman had worke dhard to secure its place at the top table but rugby then badly let him down.
None of the Home Unions could really be bothered, they were building their own power bases and empires and had no wish to engage with other rugby nations on the continent. It wastheir game. The Olympics, they thought, had nothing to offer.
In 1900 in Paris, Moseley were last minute recruits to fly the flag for GBin Paris in a three-way contest with France and Germany who were represented by 1880 Frankfurt. France wonthe tournament and in so doing rugby at least made a little bit of history in that their wing Constantin Henriques,from Haiti, became the first ever black competitor at the Olympics.
Logistics -not least a three-month round trip and the expense involved -made it impossible for New Zealand,South Africa and Australia to attend although the latter were on a tour of Britain anyway in 1908 and won the Olympic title in a rather stage man-aged one-off game against County Champions Cornwall at the White City.
After the War, Olympic rugby again blotted its copy book. In 1920 Romaniaand Czechoslovakia withdrew at the last minute leaving only the USA -a collection of talented college at hletesbut with very little rugby experience -and France. The spirited American ssurprised the sporting world and tri-umphed as they did in Paris in 1924.
Now the latter was a proper rugby occasion, a tantalising glimpse of what might have been. There was a30,000 crowd at the Stade Colombes -the biggest attendance of the entire Games -and a fiery contest which the USA won 17-3, but the riotous scene sat the end when French fans attacked the American players and stoned their bus as they left the stadia did not go down well with the authorities.
One way or another rugby had not stepped up to the plate and when De Coubertin retired from the IOC the following year its fate was sealed and it was consigned to the Olympic wilderness. Every so often its reintroduction was mooted but rugby'son-going support for apartheid South Africa didn't go down well in the corridors of power and then the success of Rugby World Cup threw up another issue. The old tradition was that the Olympics had to be the pinnacle for aparticular sport but how could an Olympics rugby event to the World Cup?
Rugby pretende dit didn't really mind being outside the Olympic movement. But of course it did, not least because it had become obvious that the various Olympic Association saround the world were the biggest financiers of sport on the planet. Participate in the Olympics and Olympic qualifying competitions and some of those financial resources might come into play.
There were still hurdles to clear though. The world of rugby was too small and elite, every nation in the world had to be able to compete, at least in theory. That ruled out 15s, but Sevens was more of a level playing field where David could occasionally slay Goliath.That was the way for ward.Then there was the question of gender. The Olympics, after initially dragging its feet like the rest of the sporting world, suddenly took the leadin demanding equal opportunities for women and offering the same competitive opportunities. If rugby was to return to the Olympics movement it needed to prove itself, genuinely, to be a sport for both men and women.
Fighting the good fight for rugby incommittee rooms was a Belgian,Jacques Rogge, who served as president of the European Olympic committee between 1989 and 2001 and then president of the IOC between 2001 and 2013. Rogge had learned thegame while a student in Paris and played internationally as a flanker for Belgium. He was a closet ‘rugby tragic'and sensed the moment for the game's Olympic rehabilitation was close.
Serious negotiations got under way,the old IRB had established the World Series Sevens which showcased the men's sport's potential and a bid was tabled in 2005 for inclusion in the 2012Games. That was narrowly rejected with the main objection being the lack of a viable women's competition. That was still a problem area, the women'sgame, mainly because of neglect and prejudice, had a lot of ground to makeup. The IRB needed to reach out and get more women playing rugby which it set about doing, not least by under- taking, from 2012 onwards, to stage a Women's World Series.
With all this in place rugby finally got over the line and was reintroduced to the Olympics as the 121stIOC session at Copenhagen in 2009.In one way it wasn't ideal timing London 2012 would have been the dream scenario while rugby would also have made a huge splash at To kyoin 2020. Brazil wasn't really rugby territory and rugby wasn't likely to justify one of the bigger stadia. And,as we all know, the crowd participation and energy is a big part of a successful Sevens tournament.
But, in another way, Rio worked well. It offered a proper test of the sport itself. We got to see exactly how it stacked up as an Olympic even tand the truth is it did well offering up some of the best team sport action of the Games while the images of the Fiji squad singing and praying together after annihilating Great Britain in the men's final wereen during. Fiji's win was entirely fit-ting and privately what the Olympic movement had been hoping for. The gold medal did not go to any of the superpowers in the sport and was in fact Fiji's first Olympic medal of any description in any sport which sent out a pleasing message.
Meanwhile, in the women's com-petition the sheer athleticism onshow made a big impression with Australia slightly upsetting the odds with a 24-17 win over New Zealand.It was good to see rugby finally con-tributing a notable chapter to Olympic history.
he History of Rugby:PART 192016 – 2020FIJI STRIKE GOLD IN RIO Next week: What the future holds
“Fiji's gold medal wasen tirely fitting and what the Olympic movement had been hoping for”
Timeline
2016:Fiji win men's Olympics Sevens. Australia take the women's title
2016:England win Grand Slam and all three Test matches in Australia
2017:New Zealand women regain Women's World Cup,beating England in the final
2017:New Zealand and Lions draw series 1-1 with one Test match drawn
2018:Ireland claim their third Grand Slam in history
2019:Saracens pull off the Premiership and European Cup double
2019:Wales win their 12thGrand Slam and third under coach Warren Gat land
2019:South Africa win the World Cup in Japan, beating England in the final
2019:Saracens condemnedto relegation for salary cap irregularities
