Why SVNS makes sense for the future

Rugby sevens-or SVNS, as a London-based team of funkily-dressed marketing executives have somehow succeeded in rebranding it used to be known as "the short game".

- CHRIS HEWETT

It's certainly short on vowels, but you can get away with pretty much anything, up to and including the reinvention of language, when a Toulouse scrumhalf by the name of DPNT is the new face of your premium product.

In the spirit of the moment, let's go trendy and ask if there is anything the 15-a-side code might learn from its junior and all-too-frequently anonymous sibling. If this sounds like rank heresy to those who love their "real" scrums, revere the lineout, adore the maul and sanctify all that "dirty work afoot in the forest" stuff that still goes on at close quarters, so be it. Part of rugby's problem across the decades has been its rigid orthodoxy, so we will press on regardless.

Among the most striking aspects of a gloriously unpredictable Olympics programme were the impacts of DPNT on the men's tournament and Piper Logan of Canada on the women's, along with Michaela Blyde of New Zealand and a pair of Levis, Maddison and Teagan, of Australia.