Rugby union at the Summer Olympics

Scene of the rugby game between France and Germany at the 1900 Summer Olympics

Three National Olympic Committees (NOCs), France, Germany and Great Britain, entered teams at the 1900 games. The German and British teams were not national teams in the current sense of the word: Moseley Wanderers RFC represented Great Britain and the FC 1880 Frankfurt represented Germany.[3] Rules were also different from today's; 3 points, not 5, were awarded for tries and 4, not 3, were given for a drop goal. Also, 4 points were awarded for a goal from mark, which would be reduced to 3 points in 1905 and eliminated completely in 1977. Points for penalties and conversions, 3 and 2 respectively, were the same as in the modern game.

France won the gold, beating Great Britain 27 points to 8 and defeating Germany 27 points to 17. Other sources list the German team as second, because of the points difference, but no such determination was made in 1900.[4] 6,000 people watched the game between France and Great Britain, which was the largest crowd at the games.[5] Constantin Henriquez, a player on the French team, is the first known coloured athlete to compete in the Olympic Games.[6]

1908 Olympic Gold Final Wallabies v Cornwall

Rugby union was not played at the 1904 games in St. Louis, nor at the 1906 Intercalated Games, but was included in 1908, when the Olympics were held in the sport's native country. The Rugby Football Union (RFU) was involved in the organization of the sport at this edition of the Olympics. Like the 1900 games, three teams entered: Australasia (representing Australia and New Zealand), France, and hosts Great Britain (which included the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland). France pulled out prior to the commencement of the tournament, being unable to field a representative team. Australasia was represented by the Wallabies, who were already on tour in Britain. As the best English and Welsh players were on tour in New Zealand at the time,[5] Great Britain was represented by the Cornwall county team,[7] who were chosen by the RFU as an appropriate side after they defeated Durham in the 1907 English county championship. The choice of Cornwall was controversial, as only three of their players had ever represented England and the Wallabies had defeated them 18 points to five.[8]

As expected, Australasia defeated Great Britain, claiming the gold medal, the score being 32 points to three. The match at the White City Stadium was played under poor conditions, in fog and on a slippery field.[9] Two of the Australian team members would later win another Olympic gold medal. Danny Carroll would win another rugby gold with the United States in 1920,[10] while Sydney Middleton would win a gold medal in rowing at the 1912 Games, where rugby was not on the programme.[11] The sport also failed to appear on the provisional schedule of the 1916 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War I.

1920 USA Rugby Team

A campaign to send an American side to the 1920 games in Antwerp started in California after a Berkeley rugby union touring party returned from British Columbia undefeated in 1920.[8] The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) granted permission for entry. A pool of players from Stanford, Berkeley, and Santa Clara made up the squad.[8] 1908 champion Danny Carroll, a player-coach at Stanford at the time, was the team's most prominent member. When the U.S. arrived in Antwerp, the Czechoslovakian and Romanian teams had withdrawn, leaving only France and the United States. The English RFU had decided not to enter a team, so as not to interfere with the start of the English domestic season.[12]

The only match was played in rain in front of around 20,000 spectators. The U.S., featuring many players new to the sport of rugby, caused a shock by winning the only match eight points to zero, all points being scored in the second half. One of the U.S. team members, Morris Kirksey, took home two more medals from Antwerp, finishing second to Charles Paddock in the 100 meters dash, and anchoring the winning 4 × 100 meters relay team.[13]

The sport was again included in the subsequent 1924 games in Paris. The USOC decided to send a team. Along with the U.S. and the host nation, Romania entered.[14] The American team was again made up of mainly Californian players. The U.S. squad departed on a seven-day voyage to England on an ocean liner from New York City.[14][15]

France defeated Romania 61 to 3[16] and entered the final game as favorites.[17] The gold medal game was played on 18 May in front of 30,000 spectators[18] at the Colombes venue.[19][20] The U.S. defeated France. At the final whistle the pitch was invaded by the French fans. The medal ceremony took place with police protection.

Rare vintage footage of the 1924 Gold Medal match was included in the rugby documentary, A Giant Awakens: the Rise of American Rugby.

The drawing Rugby by Luxembourgeois painter Jean Jacoby, which earned him a gold in a 1928 Olympic art competition, after the sport had been dropped

Italy in 1960, the Soviet Union in 1980, and South Korea in 1988 made requests to have rugby union brought back.[23] The 1980 request did not pass, and the 1988 games came close but failed to see the sport's admission, which was backed by the International Rugby Football Board (now, World Rugby (WR)).[3][16][24]

Apart from supporting the individual host cities' requests, the IRB did not focus its own efforts on returning the sport to the Olympics until the early 1990s, when efforts began to reunite the two movements with a series of informal meetings between the then IRB Secretary, Keith Rowlands, and the British Olympic Association Secretary, Dick Palmer. In 1994, when Vernon Pugh QC of Wales was elected Chairman of the IRB, the march towards Olympic recognition began in earnest. Pugh convinced the IRB Council that Olympic membership – initially as a non-participation sport – would be beneficial to rugby and offer the IRB member unions membership of their National Olympic Committees. Many European Federations, such as France, Italy and Romania, had been members of their National Olympic Committees for decades. The demand to get rugby back in the Olympics mounted as more rugby nations from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas joined the IRB, because it was a sport seen as providing a realistic medal opportunity for a number of smaller nations.[25][26]

A significant step in the process of acceptance back into the Olympic Movement was achieved at a ceremony held in Cardiff in November 1994, when the IRB was officially confirmed as a Recognised International Federation of the IOC. At that ceremony, International Olympic Committee President, Juan Antonio Samaranch, pointed out that rugby's history and values were very much in tune with the Olympic philosophy and traditions. This historic meeting in Cardiff led to IRB representation at annual IOC meetings and consideration for inclusion in the programme of future Olympic Games.[27] In 2002, a plan was presented to induct rugby sevens, golf and the Chinese martial art of wushu.[24][28]

For further information, see Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics#Efforts to include rugby sevens in the Olympics