RUGBY should be an Olympic sport in the 15-man code and not just for the seven-a-side, International Rugby Board (IRB) chairman Vernon Pugh said on Thursday. Speaking at a meeting of the world rugby governing body in Buenos Aires, Pugh said he was determined to get Olympic status for rugby union although he knew that the Games were already stretched with the number of sports they had to accommodate. He claimed that the sport is now more global than ever before, with 84 countries affiliated to the IRB and that more were hoping to do so. “Next week the Executive Council will be considering applications to join from Cameroon, Colombia, India and Niue Island in the South Pacific and we also have had expressions of interest in membership from another 10 countries, among them Azerbaijan, Peru, Senegal and Vanuatu,” Pugh said.