Mike Friday: World Rugby must ’embrace the Olympics’ as NFL and league rivals emerge
USA head coach boss Mike Friday believes the Paris Olympic Games is make-or-break for the sport of Rugby Sevens and World Rugby must act.
The Paris Olympic Games are make-or-break for the sport of Rugby Sevens, according to the most experienced head coach in the competition.
Mike Friday, boss of the United States team, fears Flag Football and Rugby League Nines could overtake Sevens in popularity unless union’s short-form alternative makes it big in France.
Pivotal moment for Rugby Sevens
“This is a huge moment for Rugby Sevens in the Olympics,” says the former England and Kenya head coach. “A massive moment to see whether Rugby Sevens can truly capture the global imagination.
“Will the world – and not just the rugby world – fall in love with it? Does it really have the potential to become a truly global game?
“I’m genuinely not sure. We don’t know whether it will be embraced by America’s sporting eyeballs, and in turn, by Asia’s sporting eyeballs. It is a real tipping point.
“In our small little rugby world we think our game, be it XVs or Sevens, is a global game when really it’s not. It’s a world game played by a few countries around the world.”
World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont was quick to get excited about the start of the Paris competition, with a 69,000 crowd setting a single-day record for the sport.
“We wanted to get the Games off to a spectacular start, but, wow, today was special,” he purred.
The rise of competitors
It was, but first day of Olympics, first Paris Games for a century and national hero Antoine Dupont topping the bill, frankly anything less would have demanded a steward’s enquiry.
Friday takes a longer-term view and, while shaped by the fact he works in America where rugby union is emphatically a minor sport, his concerns over the rise of Flag, the shortened, non-contact form of American football, and to a lesser degree Nines are valid.
Flag has been added to the Olympic programme for the Los Angeles Games in 2028, Nines is likely to be on the roster for Brisbane 2032.
According to the NFL, Flag football is already being played by 20 million people in 100 countries. In Australia, they say, it is played in every state and in more than 300 schools.
“Flag in 2028 is a guaranteed soft gold for America, without a shadow of a doubt,” says Friday. “Is that the NFL’s way of trying to embrace their game to get global buy-in? The amount of money and investment the NFL will put into it is huge.
“Are World Rugby prepared to match that in that sporting landscape? To be blunt they’ve got to. I know we’ve got the World Cups coming to USA in 2031 (men) and 2033 (women) but that’s not going to float the boat of the sporting landscape in America.
“In America the Olympic piece is all-important. if you can’t play in the NFL or the NBA but you can be an Olympian then that’s huge.
“So you’ve got to embrace the Olympics, which means you’ve got to do something which is different, which is try and make sure the Olympic programmes in Sevens have all the support and funding they need to, putting it bluntly, get gold.
“Because Americans love their sport and their country but their sport has to be winning for them to really embrace it.”
Asked whether he fears Flag could blow Sevens out of the water, particularly in the US, Friday replied: “I worry about it, yes. I’m also worried about rugby league. Because I think rugby league Nines will have a proper crack.
“The way [Australia’s] NRL has taken rugby league to Vegas this year and sold out the 45,000 stadium for their inaugural double-header. Their play is to get Nines into 2032 Brisbane.”
On the strength of that success, league is returning to Vegas next March with an even bigger show.
Could nines overtake sevens?
This time, in addition to the NRL Premiership double-header of Canberra-Warriors and Penrith-Cronulla, and an England-Australia women’s Test match, Wigan and Warrington will meet at Allegiant Stadium in a repeat of this year’s Challenge Cup final.
Alongside all of that, the NRL will stage the Vegas 9’s Rugby League Festival, ‘inviting teams from across North America and beyond’.
It is a stretch, at this point, to believe League Nines will overtake union Sevens in global popularity, but Friday insists: “World Rugby and the union world must not rest on their laurels, take things for granted and become complacent.
“The future investment in the world of Sevens, that needs to be massive if I’m honest with you. What do they see the game of Sevens as: a research and development vehicle or as an event where they make money?
“If it’s the latter then probably the business model’s not going to work. But if it’s seen as a research and development vehicle to realistically grow eyeballs on the game and create a global opportunity for every country then that’s what it will do.
“Which then, in theory, will help grow the game as a whole. We’ve got to capture the imagination of the wider sporting landscape and the eyeballs. That’s the challenge.”
