The International Rugby Board ( IRB ) welcomes the progress that is being made on the issue of the composition of the Sports Programme for future summer Olympic Games. The IRB has been a champion of the modernisation of the Sports Programme and has proposed that the exciting and hugely popular team sport of Rugby Sevens be added to the Programme.
"At last year's IOC Session in Singapore Rugby Sevens was one of five sports vying for a place on the Sports Programme for future editions of the Olympic Games. Following the IOC's decision not to add any new sports to the Sports Programme the IRB was supportive of moves to streamline the selection process," 
said IRB Chairman, Dr Syd Miller at the Asian Games in Doha.
"We were disappointed in Singapore and felt that the 2012 Olympic Games in London had been denied the prospect of showcasing new sports which would have been extremely popular. For instance, this weekend's IRB Sevens World Series event in Dubai is a complete sell-out, with over 70,000 tickets sold for the two-day tournament."
Follow up:
"In terms of the prestige of our world championship and on the strength of the sport's broadcasting, commercial and spectator appeal - plus the fact that no new expensive facilities are required - we believe we compared very favourably with the existing participating sports."
"The IRB fully supports the IOC Executive Board's decision to streamline the process for selecting sports onto the Programme, following a recommendation to its Programme Commission from ASOIF, the IOC Athletes Commission and the Association of National Olympic Committees. We hope the IOC will adopt the recommendation to modify the Olympic Charter so that a simple majority of votes decides the inclusion of new sports to the Programme."
"However, the IRB believes the proposal of 25 core sports (26 for 2016) is not conducive to properly reviewing and modernising the Programme and that the ceiling figure of 10,500 athletes is a more important cap on the size of future Games than limiting the number of sports in the Olympic Games to 28,"
added Dr Millar.
The IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens 2005 tournament in Hong Kong was played in front of a three-day sell out crowd of 120,000 people. The final day of the 2006 Commonwealth Games Sevens Rugby competition in Melbourne was played in front of a world record, single day, Rugby Sevens crowd of over 50,000 people as the Telstra Dome was completely sold out.
In July this year the IRB announced another year of record spectator and TV broadcast figures for the popular IRB Sevens World Series. The 2005/06 Series experienced 1147 hours of airtime over the eight international tournaments, representing an 85 percent increase on the previous year. It was televised by 32 international broadcasters in 11 different languages and had a potential cumulative audience reach of over 475 million.
The 2006/07 Series will be played in Dubai (UAE), George (South Africa), Wellington (New Zealand), San Diego (USA), Hong Kong (China), Adelaide(Australia), London (England) and Edinburgh (Scotland).
The International Rugby Board has also announced that a record number of countries have formally expressed an interest to host IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens 2009. IRB Member Unions Arabian Gulf, Australia, Hong Kong, Kenya, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia and USA have all informed the IRB of their interest to tender for the tournament that will incorporate
both a men's and a women's competition. For the first time women will have their own Rugby World Cup Sevens, taking place alongside the men's event in the same host city.
Source: IRB - by e-mail
