RUGBY UNION is a game originally designed for players of all sizes and shapes which – in the amateur era – once involved a crude division of labour.
Then a typical team generally consisted of two groups of players: eight large muscular forwards and seven smaller, leaner and more agile backs. Since the mid-1990s with the onset of the professional game, the dividing line between backs and forwards – once clear – has become blurred. Those physical characteristics that once defined and distinguished each group are less evident today. Instead for most players, regardless of their team position, physical size now matters.
The greater emphasis on player size, strength and fitness has become a feature of the modern game. It has also helped a different, less physical, modified form of rugby to develop in parallel. Rugby sevens is a variant on the traditional 15-a-side game, one where size matters less and a player’s speed and skill matter more. Matches are shorter in duration – 14 minutes – involve seven players on each team and are played at a high tempo, with few stoppages. Attack rather than defence is the priority, and players are less prone to injury. Rugby sevens – rather like Twenty 20 cricket – has proved popular with players, and with the public who enjoy its fast pace and continuous action. In recent years, the success of tag rugby among both men and women shows the recreational appeal of short-form variations of the sport.
While rugby sevens enjoys a growing international appeal, it has not won much support in official Irish rugby circles. That said, the modified game has not yet been seriously tried in Ireland, which is regrettable. For in 2016, rugby sevens will, like golf, become an Olympic sport. A national side – including a women’s team – can compete in Rio de Janeiro.
But to date, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) has shown little interest in developing the game, despite its enhanced status as an Olympic sport. The reasons are partly a matter of cost: financing rugby sevens would be expensive; and partly of political sensitivity.
Under Olympic rules, Ulster players could opt to play for a Great Britain team, which could create tensions in a sport that has been played on an all-Ireland basis since 1879, without divisive controversy. That said, sevens rugby helps to develop many of the skills – handling and passing – that 15-a-side rugby requires. Furthermore, its development would open up a useful career path within the game for promising, younger players.