The International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted 81-8 at its Session in Copenhagen last Friday to include rugby sevens and golf on the programmes for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

It will be the first time that rugby has featured in the Olympics since the Paris Games in 1924.

Dallaglio - who was a member of the England team that the inaugural Sevens World Cup in 1993, 10 years before his he helped his country to win the 15-a-side tournament in Australia – believes the IOC have made the correct decision by including rugby in the Olympic Games.

Dallaglio told insidethegames: "I think everyone knows that rugby probably fits in with the Olympic ideals more than most other sports because it's played globally across the world by so many people.

"I think it is a great spectator sport and I think the values of the game are fantastic."

The International Rugby Board (IRB) have promised the IOC that all the top players will be available for the Olympics but Dallaglio does no necessarily believe that Britain will require their super-star names to do well in rugby sevens competitions.

He said: "The thing about sevens is often that the house-hold names in fifteens aren’t always the best sevens players.

"In England for example, we have a very, very good sevens set up at the moment coached by Ben Ryan and captained by Ollie Phillips [the 2009 IRB Sevens Player of the Year who is currently playing for French side Stade Francais] and I think all the players will have the right release clauses in their contracts to make sure that they can play."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
October 2009: Golf and rugby added to Olympic programme for Rio 2016
March 2009: England World Cup winner backs rugby Olympic bid