THERE ARE TWO new additions to the Olympic Games schedule this year. Golf will take the form of a traditional strokeplay tournament with 60 players competing across four days, so that format should need no further introduction. The introduction of rugby though, may need a little crash course. So here you go.
It’s rugby, but not like the Six Nations, right?
Right. It’s Sevens Rugby, the shorter form of that 15-a-side game which New Zealand dominate and Ireland are able to contest European trophies.
As the name suggests, Sevens Rugby consists of two teams of seven players playing high-tempo rugby on a regular-sized rugby field. To make things even handier to remember, they play games consisting of seven-minute halves. So ‘seven-a-side’ is applicable more ways than one and two-minute half-time breaks mean matches don’t take two hours to get through.
So the rules are slightly different too?
The usual stuff still applies: you have to pass the ball backwards, touch it down beyond the try-line to register a five-point score and knock it between the posts afterwards to add two points for a conversion. You’ll notice some minor rule differences though:
- Conversion kickers will drop-kick towards the posts, which occurs very rarely in the 15-a-side game.
- Yellow cards will earn a two-minute sin-bin.
- Scrums will be made up of three players from each side.
- The scoring team restarts with a kick-off.
- Drawn knock-out games will progress to sudden-death extra-time periods of five minutes until a winner is found.
Great, when are Ireland playing so?
Our men and women’s Sevens programmes are relatively new on the scene and neither managed to seal qualification for the inaugural Olympic tournament.
Who should I watch out for then?
The usual superpowers of World Rugby like New Zealand, Australia, Team GB and South Africa will be there hoping to earn a podium place. But the reduced squad numbers and higher emphasis on speed, side-steps and offloads gives some nations much less synonymous with the oval ball a big leg up in this sport.
In the men’s tournament, Fiji are the 2/1 favourites and have won the last two World Series ahead of South Africa – though the Kiwis have won 12 of the 17 seasons.
New Zealand women also dominate the much shorter history of the female world series. But they were beaten to the title this year by Australia, who are the 8/11 favourites for gold.
Any decent players about?
Loads. Though there aren’t quite as many recognisable 15-a-side stars as we may have been expecting to feature, that simply underlines the specialist skill-set required.
Double World Cup-winner Sonny Bill Williams (and his sister Niall) will represent New Zealand in Rio, while Pro12 watchers will recognise the unreal offloading repertoire of Fiji’s Leone Nakarawa. South Africa cut Bryan Habana from their travelling squad, but Juan de Jongh is a fully-fledged Springbok wing.
Saracens wing Chris Wyles and speedster Carlin Isles (pictured above) will feature for the USA too.
I’m in. Where and when?
The women will lead rugby’s charge into the Games, with hosts Brazil taking on Team GB at 4pm (Irish time) on tomorrow. The pool games will come thick and fast after that with the knock-outs coming on 7 and 8 August.
The men’s tournament will kick off the following day, Australia getting the show on the road in their pool B clash with France at 3pm (Irish time) on 9 August with the later pool games and knockouts coming on 10 August before the 11 August semis and final.
Unlike boxing, there will be only one bronze medal up for grabs with a third-place play-off set up between the losers of two semi-finals.
See a full list of fixtures here>>>
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