Rugby backers for 2016 Olympics get home support

QUEENSTOWN, New Zealand — Backers of rugby's campaign for reinstatement as an Olympic sport could not have wished for a more supportive audience than the Oceania National Olympic Committee meetings in Queenstown, New Zealand. Ex-Fiji captain Waisale Serevi told members at the ONOC general assembly on Tuesday that the inclusion of Rugby Sevens in the 2016 Olympics would increase the chances for small countries to win medals. New Zealand is one of the game's heartlands and will host the 2011 Rugby World Cup. It is also home to the famous New Zealand All Blacks, the code's No. 1-ranked team. Rugby was last played at the Olympics in Paris in 1924 and the International Rugby Board's representative Kit McConnell said it was ready for reinclusion. – AP