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Rugby union at the Summer Olympics
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Rugby union has been a men's medal sport at the modern Summer Olympic Games, being played at four of the first seven competitions. The sport debuted at the 1900 Paris games. It subsequently featured at the London games in 1908, the Antwerp games in 1920 and the Paris games in 1924. Shortly after the 1924 games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) cancelled rugby union as an Olympic sport. There have been numerous attempts to bring the sport back to the Olympic programme. The most recent have been for the inclusion of the sevens version of the sport, which is played at similar competitions such as the Commonwealth Games.
Introduction in 1900 and the 1908 gamesThe sport was introduced by Pierre de Coubertin, who is famous for reviving the modern Olympics. He also helped to establish rugby in France, his most notable achievements were refereeing the first domestic French club championship in 1892 and France’s first international, on New Year’s Day, 1906 at Parc des Princes. Coubertin formed the IOC in 1894, but rugby union would not be featured until the II Olympiad.
1900Three National Olympic Committees (NOC) each entered a team at the 1900 games. They were France, Germany and Great Britain. The German and British teams were not national teams in the current sense of the word, but represented by clubs. Mosley Wanderers RFC played for Britain, while the Frankfurt Club represented Germany. Rules were also different from today's, with 3 points for both tries and penalties, 2 points for a conversion and 4 for a drop goal.
France won the gold, beating Great Britain 27 points to eight and defeating Germany 27 points to 17. The final round robin match, between Germany and Britain was never played, as the teams were unable to stay in Paris until the scheduled match date. Other sources list the German team as second, because of the points difference, but no such determination was made in 1900. 6,000 people watched the game between France and Great Britain, which was the largest crowd at the games. Constantin Henriquez de Zubiera, a player on the French team, is the first known coloured athlete to compete in the Olympic Games.
1908Rugby union was not played at the 1904 games in St. Louis, nor at the 1906 Intercalated Games, but was included in 1908, when the Olympics were held in the sport's native country. The Rugby Football Union (RFU) was involved in the organization of the sport at this edition of the Olympics.
Like the 1900 games, three teams entered: Australasia (representing Australia and New Zealand), France, and Great Britain (which included the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland). France pulled themselves from the event prior to the commencement of the tournament, being unable to field a representative team. Australasia's team, the Wallabies, was already on tour in Britain, while the best Anglo-Welsh players were on tour in New Zealand at the time. Great Britain was therefore represented by the Cornwall county team, who were chosen by the RFU as an appropriate side after they defeated Durham in the 1907 English county championship. The choice of Cornwall was controversial, as only three of their players had ever represented England, as well as the fact that Australia, who had been on a tour of the United Kingdom, had defeated them 18 points to five.
As expected, Australasia defeated Great Britain, claiming the gold medal, the score being 32 points to three. The match at the White City Stadium was played under poor conditions, in fog and with a slippery field.
Two of the Australian team members would later win another Olympic gold medal. Danny Carroll would win another rugby gold with the United States in 1920, while Syd Middleton would win a gold medal in rowing at the 1912 Games, where rugby was not on the programme. The sport also failed to appear on the provisional schedule of the 1916 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War I.
USA victory in 1920 and 19241920A campaign to send an American side to the 1920 games in Antwerp started in California after a rugby union Cal-Berkeley touring party returned from British Columbia undefeated in 1920. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) granted permission for entry. A pool of players from Stanford, Cal-Berkeley and Santa Clara made up the squad. 1908 champion Danny Carroll, a player-coach at Stanford at the time, was the team's most prominent member. When the U.S. arrived in Antwerp, the Czechoslovakian and Romanian teams had withdrawn, leaving only France and the United States. The British RFU had decided not to enter a team as not to interfere with the start of their domestic season.
The only match was played in rain in front of around 20,000 spectators. The U.S., featuring many players new to the sport of rugby, caused a shock by winning the only match eight points to zero, all points being scored in the second half. One of the U.S. team members, Morris Kirksey, took home two more medals from Antwerp, finishing second to Charles Paddock in the 100 meter dash, and anchoring the winning 4 × 100 meter relay team.
1924The sport was again included in the subsequent 1924 games in Paris. The USOC decided to send a team in order to defend their gold medal. Along with the U.S. and the host nation, Romania entered. The American team was again made up of mainly Californian players, seven of whom were members of the 1920 team. The U.S. squad departed on a seven-day voyage to England on an ocean liner from New York City.
The U.S. soundly defeated Romania 37 to 0 in front of a crowd of 6,000. France then defeated Romania 61 to 3. France entered the game as favourites to win. The gold medal game was played in front of 21,000 spectators at the Colombes venue which had a large wire fence built around the field for the game on May 18. The U.S. defeated France 17 to 3, becoming the only team to win gold twice in the sport.
Subsequent gamesThe IOC removed the sport following the Paris Games. Pierre de Coubertin stepped down after 1925, which may have also hurt the sport's chances for inclusion. In 1928 the IOC turned down a request to stage rugby at the Amsterdam games. At the 1936 Games in Berlin, there was an exhibition tournament held, with France, Germany, Italy and Romania competing. The French team beat Germany in the final 19 to 14.
In 1976, 22 African countries and Guyana boycotted the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, after their demand to have New Zealand excluded was not met. A New Zealand rugby team had toured South Africa, which had been banned from the Olympics since 1964 because of its apartheid politics. Rugby union not being an Olympic sport, the IOC declined to exclude New Zealand.
Efforts for inclusionItaly in 1960, the Soviet Union in 1980, and South Korea in 1988 made requests to have rugby union brought back. The 1980 request did not pass, and although the 1988 games came close to seeing the sport's admission, which was backed by the International Rugby Football Board (now, International Rugby Board, IRB). In 1995, the IRB became an IOC Recognised International Federation. In 2002, a plan was presented to induct rugby sevens, golf and the Chinese martial art of wushu.
Sevens was one of five sports that submitted a proposal to the IOC at a meeting in Singapore for inclusion in the 2012 games. The IOC stated that no sport would be added unless others were dropped. The IRB was confident that the sport would finally be included in the official Olympic program. However, the selection of two sports out of the five nominees as potential 2012 sports went to squash and karate, as determined by a voting procedure.
ResultsGames
Cumulative| Team | Played | Won | Lost | For | Against | Diff. | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 64 | 3 | 612 | – | – | 2 |
| 5 | 3 | 2 | 116 | 53 | 631 | 2 | – | 3 |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 32 | 3 | 291 | – | – | 1 |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 59 | – | 2 | – | 2 |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 27 | – | 1 | – | 1 |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 98 | – | – | 1 | 1 |
External links- on IRB.com
- on olympic.org
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