In the electric atmosphere of the Stade de France, the Olympic Sevens tournament has spectacularly displayed what is possible for rugby’s 15-a-side game.
The players’ spectacular skills, attacking mindset, sportsmanship and deep respect for the game were the personification of the ethos conceived for the modern Olympic Games by the founder, Baron Pierre De Coubertin.
The Baron, as they say in France, was “a rugby man”. He helped establish the French Rugby Federation and was a founding member of Stade Francais.
The Baron would have been proud of the liberty, equality and fraternity – the three principles of the French Republic – that this Olympic Sevens tournament displayed to the world.
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Liberté – freedom.
The unstructured nature of sevens requires players to read the opposition and react to the opportunities within each second of every match. Combined with a spirit that enjoys physical contact, Sevens provides players with the freedom to express themselves away from over-coached systems.
Egalité – equality.
Rugby nations that have smaller participation numbers can compete in international Sevens because of the lesser numbers required to not only compete but defeat the established rugby giants of the world. The Fijian men and Canadian women’s teams winning silver medals is proof of this.
Fraternité – brotherhood and sisterhood.
Travelling the globe with a small group of close team-mates, and playing the game you love, in giant stadiums in cities as diverse as Hong Kong, Madrid and Perth, while wearing your national jersey, is every rugby player’s dream.
Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité have been created in the Sevens game because over the last decade, World Rugby’s Sevens administrators have made intelligent law changes that apply only to Sevens. This has created a significant divergence that in reality has created two separate games.
This is because the Sevens organisers have aimed to raise the speed of their game and increase the amount of time that the ball is in play. Their mission was to multiply the enjoyment factor for the players and the entertainment for the crowds, who party in the stands as hard as the players compete.
This has led to the World Rugby Sevens Series becoming a tournament for athletes with exceptional aerobic fitness. Sevens players are required to repeatedly sprint and recover with minimal breaks across the 14 minutes of every game.
Playing five games across the tournament means the sevens athletes at the Olympics have played 70 minutes of lung-busting aerobic rugby.
Such an emphasis on aerobic fitness has required this generation of Sevens players to carry far less muscle bulk than their 15-a-side cousins.
Perplexingly, inside the same governing body that produced these positive laws in Sevens, World Ruby has created laws in the 15-a-side game that have driven it in the complete opposite direction.
In recent years the ball in play time has plummeted. During the first Test between Ireland and South Africa in Pretoria the ball was in play for a minuscule 30 minutes. We have also seen forwards dominating a 7-1 or 6-2 split on benches, resulting in 12 of the giant Springboks forwards playing only half a match. This means that at Loftus Versfeld, a Test match played at altitude only demanded 15 minutes of aerobic effort from 14 Springbok forwards.
This type of scenario is now commonplace in all levels of the 15-a-side game.
Aerobic fitness is no longer a major factor in Test match rugby and is the outcome of poor legislation.
Although there is far more space in Sevens because of less defenders, it was noticeable that during the Olympic tournament the overwhelming majority of tackles were below the sternum, which creates safe tackles for both the tackler and the ball carrier.
In the hundreds of tackles that were performed across the tournament exceptionally few resulted in HIAs.
These observations align with the statistics coming out of New Zealand rugby where the below-the-sternum tackle law is being trialled in all domestic 15s matches.
Here are the key numbers out of New Zealand.
In Schools 1st XV boys’ rugby, 90 per cent of tackles involved only one tackler.
In Senior men’s club rugby, 78 per cent were below the sternum.
In senior women’s rugby, 72 per cent were below the sternum.
A huge positive byproduct of low single-player tackles in New Zealand men’s club rugby is that the number of offloads increased by a staggering 65 per cent.
Offloads accelerate the pace of the game, fatiguing defenders and requiring the need to increase aerobic capacity across the teams. Offloads also make it far more fun to play and more enjoyable to watch.
When combined with dropping the tackle height and reducing the number of substitutions allowed into each match, we will inevitably bring down the number of brain injuries in the sport.
Rugby Australia explained as much when it explained the sternum tackle law to the Australian rugby public. “What the research [from New Zealand] proved was a clear and sudden reduction in concussions, over four times less than when the (tackle) limit was above the sternum.”
It is no accident that in 2023, after a season of the below-the-sternum trial laws, the participation numbers in New Zealands men’s community rugby increased by 7 per cent. Women’s and girls rugby leaped by 20 per cent. People who understand the game can see these laws are making the game safer.
Low tackling, combined with an increase in aerobic fitness that reduces players’ size and power in collisions, with a minimum goal of 60 minutes of ball-in-play time would create a faster game that is safer and more enjoyable for players and spectators.
Law changes for our 15s game that mimic our sevens cousins are, if you will excuse the pun, an absolute no-brainer.
