Re: Rugby World Cup
Yeh, I think they should make a bigger deal of 7's in school. Only problem is that, where rugby normally have a position for any person big or slow or small or fat, 7's in a way cut the versatality factor.
Among all the sports, I believe rugby cater for all types of physiques. One reason being the set pieces such as scrums and lineouts. Locks and props can play soccer and few small scrumhalfs will be able to play grid-iron.
Myself played rugby till my second year out of high-school when I had a bad injury and stopped.
Your comment about the 4 home leaques: how big is N-Zeeland for that matter....and for years under Apartheid, South Africa only had 10% of the country making up the Springbok squad.
I believe it is the amount of passion and success and available money and good administration that drives youngsters to take up the game.