Ireland legend Brian O\u2019Driscoll believes that World Rugby would be quite happy to pass the baton on when it comes to sevens after they were slammed by David Nucifora.<\/b><\/p>\n
The global governing body currently run the SVNS series but, in the wake of the Irish Rugby Football Union\u2019s decision to axe their men\u2019s sevens programme, Nucifora was critical of World Rugby.<\/p>\n
He stated that they \u201cdo not deserve the right to own the game of sevens\u201d and that \u201cthe sooner someone takes it from them the sooner it will meet its potential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nucifora was performance director at the IRFU<\/a> between 2014 and 2024, and he was evidently frustrated that his work on sevens has ultimately gone to waste.<\/p>\n O\u2019Driscoll<\/a> disagreed with the Australian, however, and feels that\u00a0World Rugby<\/a> would be delighted to see someone else take over the shorter form of the sport.<\/p>\n \u2018Doesn\u2019t hate sevens\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that [new IRFU performance director] David Humphreys doesn\u2019t hate sevens,\u201d he told Off The Ball. \u201cCertainly, some of the comments from David Nucifora are probably unhelpful around his disgust for it and that World Rugby doesn\u2019t deserve a sevens competition, and the sooner someone takes it off their hands the better.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you know what, I almost think World Rugby would encourage that, I really do, because sevens works in some ways and doesn\u2019t in others.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a loss-maker and I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to return a profit any time soon. Any functioning business is not going to continue going down that road.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see it in the club game over in the UK and France with these wealthy benefactors willing to lose money year-on-year because, for want of a better term, their play thing, or the enjoyment factor they derive from it, and they\u2019re willing to lose a certain amount.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that can\u2019t go on forever and World Rugby are no different than anybody else. They\u2019re realists around needing to turn that corner.\u201d<\/p>\n