History of Rugby 7s at the Olympic Games

The sport was featured in early iterations of the modern Games but was excluded after 1924.

Rugby in any form hadn't featured since - but, in 2016, amid growing interest, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to include it at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

It was the 7s version of the sport they chose to include, with Fiji (men's team) and Australia (women's team) taking home the gold medals.

Rugby 7s was again included at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where Fiji (men's team) took gold once more and New Zealand (women's team) also clinched the top honour.

Cementing itself as an Olympic sport, once again, Rugby 7s will be played at the Games in Paris this summer.

Needless to say, Fiji's men's team will be worth keeping an eye on.

What is Rugby 7s?

Quite simply - and as the name would suggest - it's a modified version of regular rugby union, but with seven players on either team instead of 15.

Despite it being seven-a-side, the game is still played on a regulation rugby pitch, which is typically around 120 metres by 70.

If that sounds exhausting, don't worry - as matches are played in two halves of just seven minutes.

Let's rattle off a few more rules: drawn matches go into golden point extra time; all conversions must be drop-kicked; scrums are made up of three players; the scoring team restarts the match and yellow cards mean two minutes in the sin-bin.

As a result of all these stipulations, Rugby 7s is played at a significantly faster pace than its 15-a-side counterpart.

The 1924 Olympic Games

Rugby union was excluded from the Olympic Games in 1924 after the USA upset home favourites France in the final.

There were just three teams taking part that year - France, the USA and Romania.

The tournament was littered with controversy, heightened by the French press, as partisans in the crowd were vocally anti-American.

France took on Romania in the first match of the Games and dispatched them with ease - though, there were some grumbles off-field.

A French company had been given broadcasting rights, but an interested American firm was denied the same opportunity.

This issue went on for some time and a meeting was forced in an attempt to resolve the dispute, but that didn't help.

Added to this, the American team were reported to have been treated poorly on the streets of Paris - as they were vocally chastised and spat at several times.

The final

Following two heavy defeats for Romania, the final was set between France and the USA.

Tensions had been building beforehand, which undoubtedly added fuel to the fire in the stadium.

Two Frenchmen were unable to finish the game through injuries, while fans threw projectiles at players and match officials.

With the USA 17-3 victors, French fans invaded the pitch at full-time - leaving police to defend the American team, who were eventually locked in their dressing room for protection.

It could be thought that the fallout from the 1924 Games contributed to the decision to not play rugby in any form again for almost 100 years.

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Rugby 7s at the Olympic Games gets underway on the afternoon of July 7th, when Australia face Samoa.

The Women's 7s will follow a few days later, when Ireland take on Great Britain on July 28th.