Combined GB side planned for Olympics

The final vote to decide whether rugby will be at the 2016 Olympics takes place on 9th October, and today the last possible fly in the ointment was removed when the RFU, RFUW, Scottish, and Welsh RFUs all enthusiastically agreed that they would work together to produce a combined GB team for both the men's and women's tournaments.

Football has got its collective knickers in a complete and rather embarrasing twist for the 2012 Olympics where the three FAs were supposed to come up with combined GB team, but (as none of them trust each other or their game's governing body) have comprehensively failed to do so. The only outstanding question was whether the three national Rugby Unions would be similarly unable to work together. Today's announcement shows that this will not be a problem.

Ireland are not included in the agreement as they would play as the Republic of Ireland. As is the case with other sports organised on an All-Ireland basis, players from Northern Ireland would be able to choose to play for either Ireland or Great Britain (indeed, technically anyone from anywhere in Ireland can decide to play for Great Britain - as several Republic-based boxers have in the past).

Its also worth remembering that sevens is a young woman's game and the core of any Great Britain team at the 2016 Games will currently be around 14 to 17 years old...