Olympic Games decision will come in October

Dubai: The International Olympic Committee meets in October to vote on what sports to admit to the Summer Games for 2016.

Rugby has given itself the best possible chance for reinclusion after a spectacular World Cup Sevens in Dubai which ticked all the relevant boxes and some more into the bargain.

Beth Coalter, the IRB's Tournament Operations Manager, was certainly happy at the conclusion of the three-day event which also featured a first-ever women's tournament and showcased the great strengths of rugby sevens.

The sport's unpredictability was amply demonstrated as pre-event favourites such as Fiji, England, New Zealand and South Africa were all sent crashing out at the quarter-final stage amid the fast and furious TV-friendly action in front of near capacity crowds.

That meant the last four were drawn from South America, Africa, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, highlighting how genuinely competitive sevens is as well as its global reach.

The historic women's tournament was also a runaway success, Australia edging out New Zealand in a nail-biting final. And it would surely not have escaped the attention of the visiting IOC delegates that the bowl final saw China just hold off Brazil, further underlining rugby's wide and growing appeal.

Coalter said: "This was such a great event for the IOC to observe and witness the importance people are putting on sevens. Having teams such as Kenya and Argentina qualify for the semi-finals shows that it is very open.

"I also hope that the whole ethos of what has been achieved over the last three days came across ... the friendships that develop and teams from around the world mixing together."

Coalter said the World Cup "had exceeded expectations" but admitted to some pre-event concerns. "No one knew what it was going to be like having two tournaments running together like this," she said. "We weren't sure how it would work, and getting the timings and scheduling right was a real challenge.

"The big question was, would people stay in the stadium to watch the women play? And that was answered very clearly as the crowds enjoyed the women's games as much as the men's."