Few people will be fretting over next month's decision on the inclusion of rugby in the Olympics as much as Zheng Hongjun and the band of enthusiasts who have run the sport in China on a shoestring for the last two decades.
Such is China's obsession with Olympic success that a vote from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to add sevens to the schedule for the 2016 Summer Games would transform the "olive ball game," as it is known in Chinese.
Rugby would immediately attract central government funding and, more importantly, become a sport at China's quadrennial National Games, which in turn would lead to the establishment of teams in most of the country's 31 provinces and regions.
"If rugby manages to get into the Olympics there will inevitably be a great development in China," Zheng, China's head coach, told Reuters in his office in a scruffy building at the China Agricultural University.
"The state will pay more attention to it...so rugby can enjoy a quick expansion all over the country as the sports schools' provincial teams will be launched one after another.
"And we will eventually see professional players being produced by the state sports structure."
The China Agricultural University is the heart and soul of Chinese rugby, providing the team with a 500,000-yuan (44,627 pounds) annual grant which, along with a few scraps of sponsorship, have sustained the sport since 1990.
WIDER POOL
Zheng estimates that there are at most 300 Chinese rugby players at the moment and it is the prospect of being able to chose from more than his pool of keen but limited students, along with a few soldiers, that excites him most.
"Honestly, our current student players are not the most talented sportsmen in the country as the best athletes might not be able to enter the universities through exams and could only go into the sports school system," he said.
"And our students have to study at the same time. We are far less competitive. If professional teams were launched, with much bigger investment, more participants and players with better ability, rugby would improve very quickly."
The university launched mainland China's first rugby team after a professor return from studies in Japan in 1989, and it has essentially doubled as the national team ever since.
Zheng played at scrum half and was one of the first coaches, watching videos and travelling to Hong Kong, Britain and Australia to learn about the game.
"It was difficult at the beginning. This was a brand new sport in China," he recalled.
"People said all kinds of negative things. But I had faith in rugby. It was so exciting and I thought it would definitely have good prospects."
China joined the International Rugby Board (IRB) in 1996 and played their first test against Singapore the following year, but in recent years they have been focussing almost exclusively on sevens.
"It's less expensive, more fitting with Chinese people's speed, mobility and relatively smaller body size and, significantly, an Asian Games event," said Zheng.
MEDICAL CARE
China won a bronze medal when sevens made its Asian Games debut in 2007, inspired by captain and now coach Johnny Zhang.
"I was very excited when I heard rugby might enter the Olympics. We will now be able to pay to take part in tournaments abroad, and would not have to wait for invitations with offers of accommodation," said Zhang, China's best player.
"My life would be much easier. We would no longer be short of money and all back-up stuff such as medical care and scientific research would be guaranteed."
The changes may come too late for Zhang, who plans to retire after next year's Asian Games in Guangzhou, but he has already claimed his footnote in the record books as the leading points and try scorer in the history of the Hong Kong Sevens.
If the IOC approves rugby for 2016 at its October 3-5 congress in Copenhagen, when golf will also be up for possible inclusion, there would also be a women's event.
That would be good news for players such as Bai Ying, who number even fewer than their male counterparts and challenge Chinese ideas of femininity.
"Everyone thinks it's weird for women to play rugby because it requires a tough and muscular body," the 25-year-old said.
"People feel like: 'Wow, why have you made yourself so big? How ugly!' but healthy is also beautiful. Nowadays people are increasingly open, so they will slowly get used to the sport."
(Source: Reuters)
