KEY POINTS:
Getting rugby into the Olympics has been a long and losing campaign. Promoting it as a game played around the world might be the wrong line. Better to convince one of the powers there is a medal in it.
Currently, this would be the United States, with easily
the best record in rugby, and the defending gold medallist.
The USA has won two of them, ahead of France with a gold and two silvers. New Zealand turns up sharing a gold, as 'Australasia'.
The Americans won in 1920, coming back four years later, to the Paris Olympics, immortalised in 'Chariots of Fire.' By 1924 France had one of its best-ever teams. It would have just two matches, against USA and Romania.
The Americans were seen as more problematic than the Romanians, but not too much of a worry. Rugby, driven by immigrants, had been hugely popular in turn of the century America. By World War I it was largely off the map.
The organisers decided rugby was a lock for a French gold and made it the opening event.
Faced with the French skill and talent the American coach had shipped in football players and basketballers, going for speed, strength, size and power over subtlety.
The French press got a sniff of this, denouncing the Americans as 'street fighters and saloon brawlers'.
The French refused the Americans a practice field, so they took themselves to Colombes Stadium, venue for the rugby, climbed the fence and had a practice session behind locked doors.
Both the French and the Americans clipped Romania. The France v USA final pulled 50,000 people. Paris bookmakers got caught up in the frenzy, unusual for normally pragmatic bookies, setting the French team at 20-1 favourites. It is not known whether the United States team took the opportunity to get a few francs on at this once-in-a-lifetime price.
It took the French only two minutes to discover 'A good big guy will beat a good little guy'. Adolphe Juarraguy, a diminutive winger lauded as the fastest player in the world, got the ball and took off. He got as far as 'Lefty' Rogers, who flattened him with the sort of hit that makes NFL highlight reels. Juarraguy tried again. Rogers caught him with a second 'tooth-rattling' tackle. It got worse. Alan Valentine, a feared football player, then levelled Juarraguy. That was it. He didn't run any more. He didn't do anything. He was carried off, 'like a sack of potatoes'.
Fortunately, he lived to decide not to tell the tale.
The French team desperate not to be caught in possession invented 'pass the parcel', en route to a 17-3 beating. In the stands things turned ugly. French rugby hooligans, these existed back then, began attacking the American supporters. However, having seen the United States team's tackling they made the sensible decision not to invade the pitch.
Could the USA turn sevens skills into Olympic success? Photo / Mark Mitchell
