Australia’s 7s captain to address IOC

Cheryl Soon,(left),Australias World Cup winning 7s captain, is to address the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Denmark on Friday as part of the bid to encourage the return of rugby to the games in 2016.

Soon is in Copenhagen with other leading womens rugby players including Kazakhstan captain Anastassiya Khamova.

Soon, who led Australia to World Cup success in the inaugural women's sevens championship in Dubai earlier this year, will be part of a strong delegate lineup which includes Jonah Lomu and IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset. They will attempt to persuade the IOC a to accept the recommendation that rugby be included in the Olympics in time for 2016 which will be held in Rio de Janeiro. The IOC executive board put forward rugby and golf in June as the two sports to be considered by the 106 IOC members.

Soon is no stranger to such occasions as she was part of the successful IRB presentation to the IOC executive board in Lausanne earlier this year.

We presented in June to 20 executive board members in their board room around a table, she said. Now we're presenting to the 106 IOC members on stage, at a podium, with three cameras around the auditorium and three massive screens set up at the back of the stage.I'm really looking forward to it.

If the vote goes rugbys way it will be the first time womens rugby has been played at the Olympics though rugby itself has been played at four previous Olympics, the last of them in 1924.

See www.scrumqueens.com for more later this week on the Olympic decision.