Sevens

[Peg Leg]

7's is an organised piss up!
It's rugby for people with a limited attention span.
The "7's circuit" is like the fekn WWE- roll into town, put the drinks on and wheel out the entertainers @ 15 minute intervals.

[papachino]

Lads, this is the Rumor Mill not the General conversation mill !!

[simonokeeffe]

Like I said, Dublin leg of 7's world series would pay for it or go a long way to pay for it

You're basing that on what? Sevens rugby doesn't make money. Even Fiji, the Brazil of Sevens, need an IRB subvention to participate, and they're the star attraction.

the could sell tickets to the matches

on a less sarky note as its an olympic sport there might even be some IOC funding

[simonokeeffe]

Yeah that was all my fault, mods moved the row to a different thread

we need to go back to rumours now

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Have heard from a very reliable source that the 7s thread has been moved.

[Dave Cahill]

Like I said, Dublin leg of 7's world series would pay for it or go a long way to pay for it

You're basing that on what? Sevens rugby doesn't make money. Even Fiji, the Brazil of Sevens, need an IRB subvention to participate, and they're the star attraction.

the could sell tickets to the matches

on a less sarky note as its an olympic sport there might even be some IOC funding

It costs a million quid a year to run a proper sevens squad. When can we collect the cheque?

[RavenhillRaider]

the could sell tickets to the matches

on a less sarky note as its an olympic sport there might even be some IOC funding

It costs a million quid a year to run a proper sevens squad. When can we collect the cheque?

When we qualify for rio

Looks like some posters have just made their mind up, and attack any suggestion of sevens.

[paddyor]

I've never bothered watching sevens much but I do think the Olympics could lift its profile and make it a much bigger game. Even if it is a subset so is 1 day and 20/20 cricket but both are hugely supported. The 15 minute intervals are perfect for TV as they allow lots of advertising too!

[paddyor]

the could sell tickets to the matches

on a less sarky note as its an olympic sport there might even be some IOC funding

It costs a million quid a year to run a proper sevens squad. When can we collect the cheque?

When we qualify for rio

Looks like some posters have just made their mind up, and attack any suggestion of sevens.

The biggest problem there is who would we enter as? We couldn't enter as Ireland and northerners would have to get Irish passports to play as part of an ROI olympic team.

Could we possibly enter as Ireland under the Olympic flag but not part of the Irish Olympic contingent.

[ceemec]

As a matter of interest, where have NZ been getting the money for the past decade to run such a high calibre Sevens team? Surely they're not getting hand outs? Or is it a case of they're worth so much to the circuit in terms of prestige alone, they get some of their bills paid for them?

I'd ask the same of Scotland who have had major financial problems in the past decade. They've participated every year, to the best of my knowledge whilst their full game has suffered and gone to the dogs.

For the record, I'd much rather see any funding go into the full game rather than a Sevens circuit. There's a lot being done in the last several years but there's more than could be done and the game further developed in Ireland. Sevens is a great spectacle and I love watching it but it's a sideshow. Only a couple of countries put genuinely promising players into it to give them a bit more exposure and experience and even then they don't put too many top youngsters into it. The top squads, for the most part, are populated with specialists.

[RavenhillRaider]

The biggest problem there is who would we enter as? We couldn't enter as Ireland and northerners would have to get Irish passports to play as part of an ROI olympic team.

Could we possibly enter as Ireland under the Olympic flag but not part of the Irish Olympic contingent.

Thats the real reason the IRFU are dragging their heels. Not Money.

[Dave Cahill]

When we qualify for rio

Looks like some posters have just made their mind up, and attack any suggestion of sevens.

Absolutely, I'll attack any pointless waste of money. No one has yet managed to explain a) Where the money is going to come from and b) what the benefits are. Because currently, the answers are a) The budgets of Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht and b) None at all

[hugonaut]

As a matter of interest, where have NZ been getting the money for the past decade to run such a high calibre Sevens team? Surely they're not getting hand outs? Or is it a case of they're worth so much to the circuit in terms of prestige alone, they get some of their bills paid for them?

I'd ask the same of Scotland who have had major financial problems in the past decade. They've participated every year, to the best of my knowledge whilst their full game has suffered and gone to the dogs.

For the record, I'd much rather see any funding go into the full game rather than a Sevens circuit. There's a lot being done in the last several years but there's more than could be done and the game further developed in Ireland. Sevens is a great spectacle and I love watching it but it's a sideshow. Only a couple of countries put genuinely promising players into it to give them a bit more exposure and experience and even then they don't put too many top youngsters into it. The top squads, for the most part, are populated with specialists.

The IRFU's Sevens efforts are geared towards promoting the women's game, which I think is an intelligent way to grow the game [rugby in general, not just sevens] to the widest possible audience. Sevens would give a good focus to the women's game in this country, especially if there's no mens' sevens team. Personally speaking, I think women's' sevens has a far higher ceiling [both in terms of participation numbers and achievement] than women's 15-a-side rugby in this country.

It's arguably the more attractive version of the code for newcomers to the sport, firstly. Secondly, there are plenty of excellent field sportswomen in Ireland [camogie players and footballers] who would be excellent sevens players, given their aerobic fitness and ball skills, and the possibility of competing in the Olympics in Rio would be a big draw. Thirdly, it's a far closer neighbour to tag rugby [which currently has the highest female participation of any rugby code in Ireland] than the 15-a-side game. Finally [and this is probably linked to the third point] it's a far easier game to pick up than 15-a-side, as it does away with esoteric things like 8-man scrums and lineouts, and basically a whole rake of laws ... nor do you need as many players to train and/or play.

Now I haven't given it a huge amount of thought, but I'd probably be in favour of concentrating efforts on the women's game into sevens, rather than the 15-a-side version.

[simonokeeffe]

Have heard from a very reliable source that the 7s thread has been moved.

thank you for referring to me as a reliable source

then the mods work was all undone

to go back to rumours, BOD to Sky Sports and we all have to hate him then and put up with turnips abusing us for abusing Frankie but not BOD as pundit agent

[artaneboy]

Keeping the talented youngsters would be another thing a national 7's team would achieve, one should have been built just for Conway, gives these guys gametime and has them scoring tries and developing skills/confidence
A Dublin leg of world series would pay for it and would be easily done

+1

Cant understand the negitivity on here about a sevens team.

Its very simple. Its a waste of money spent on what is at best only a tiny subset of the game that is utterly unrecoverable and is of no real benefit to actual rugby.

+1 (the otherway ) It's not the same game and it's too bloody expensive to run. We just don't have the resources- money or players to do well at national, provincial and sevens.

[Donny B.]

Greatest myth about sevens is that it's entertaining. It isn't, it so meaningless and repetitive it's actually boring as f%~k which is why the majority of the crowd have to be drunk off their ass most of the day.

[waterboy]

the majority of the crowd have to be drunk off their ass most of the day.

Not seeing a downside here

[RavenhillRaider]

6 nations 7s comp rumours,

Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) tweeted at 9:48 AM on Tue, Apr 02, 2013:
More rumours circulating about a possible 6N 7-a-side tournament to harness the growing popularity of the new olympic sport- any thoughts?
(https://twitter.com/ultimaterugby/statu ... 2423284736)

Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download

[mikerob]

The biggest problem there is who would we enter as? We couldn't enter as Ireland and northerners would have to get Irish passports to play as part of an ROI olympic team.

Could we possibly enter as Ireland under the Olympic flag but not part of the Irish Olympic contingent.

The 7s team wouldn't be an IRFU team, it would be an Olympic Council of Ireland team, although the Olympic association would delegate selection to the IRFU as the sport's governing body. The situation wouldn't be that different from other Olympic sports where athletes from NI ultimately need to decide if they want to represent the Olympic Council of Ireland team or Team GB. IIRC one hockey player from NI changed from representing Ireland to England to improve his chances of being selected for Team GB.

[mikerob]

The biggest problem there is who would we enter as? We couldn't enter as Ireland and northerners would have to get Irish passports to play as part of an ROI olympic team.

Could we possibly enter as Ireland under the Olympic flag but not part of the Irish Olympic contingent.

Thats the real reason the IRFU are dragging their heels. Not Money.

The womens stand a good chance of qualifying for Rio. If they qualify, then players from the north will be representing the Olympic Council of Ireland, so no different from say, a boxer from the north.

The real reason IS money. To stand any chance of qualifying for the Olympics, the IRFU would need to run a full time squad on the 7s circuit - so that is players (who wouldn't be representing their provinces), coaches, travel and transport around the world.

My guess the IRFU are very nervous about finances - they lost a million or so by dropping down the table in the 6N, they need to sell debentures for the Aviva, the future of the European competitions are in doubt... they simply aren't going to commit lots of money to mens 7s.

The womens 7s are different as the womens game get a pittance anyway