The man behind the revival of the Olympics would have been delighted. Baron Pierre de Coubertin was also a devoted rugby fan who had refereed the French Championship final in 1893.

“What is admirable is the perpetual mix of individualism and discipline," he said. "[Rugby] football is truly the reflection of life, a lesson experimenting in the real world."

He had been greatly influenced by the philosophy of Dr Thomas Arnold, legendary headmaster of Rugby School.

“It was to Arnold that we turned, more or less consciously for inspiration,” he said. Coubertin visited the school in 1888 and much later in 1914, awarded it the Olympic Cup.

Rugby did not figure at the first Modern Olympics in 1896 but it was included at the next Games, held in Coubertin’s home town of Paris. Matches were played at the Velodrome de Vincennes but the competition attracted only three entries.

From Germany came Eintracht Frankfurt. A French newspaper reported that the Germans were “perfectly trained and very athletic. They have been much more conscientious than our players”.

The German players had even given up tobacco. So spectators were aghast to see the French skipper puffing on a big cigar.

By half-time, the Germans led 14-5 and seemed in control, but these matches were played 40 minutes each way and the Germans were only used to playing for two 30 minute halves. They ran out of steam as the French won 27-17.

The third team was a club side from the English midlands, Moseley RFC. They only arrived in Paris at six o'clock on the morning of their match after a long and tiring journey. It was perhaps little wonder that they lost 27-8 to the French. To add insult to injury, their name was wrongly spelt in the official report as "Mooseley". They had to return home before any fixture against the Germans could be arranged.

Rugby was included again in 1908 when the Olympics were held in London. The sport fiercely enforced its amateur regulations and was therefore perfect for an Olympic Movement which had very similar ideas. Other more practical problems remained.

“The Rugby Union authorities did not apparently expect strong opposition from abroad and were not in a very good position to produce a strong team at the beginning of their season,” said the Olympic Report.

Even so the Rugby Football Union in England (RFU)  "agreed we would send a team if any challenge was received.”

At the time of the Games, the cream of English and Welsh rugby players were returning from a tour of New Zealand. Organisers later claimed that the letter of invitation had never reached them.

In England, Cornwall had beaten Durham to win the 1908 County Championship and one of their officials, Mr FW Thomas, told the RFU that “the Cornwall team would be willing to meet any team that any country should nominate.” Thomas also made it clear the Cornish Rugby Union would pay the expenses of their team.

The French now withdrew but the Australians, already on a tour of Great Britain, agreed to play. They had already beaten the Cornishmen in a fixture at Camborne in front of some 18,000 spectators. A few weeks later, the Olympic match was played in an almost empty stadium at Shepherd’s Bush.

“It was altogether something of a farce" said The Times newspaper unsympathetically.

The official report noted that Australia “scored pretty much as they liked on somewhat slippery ground in dull and rather dark weather”.

A swimming pool ran alongside the pitch and when players kicked for touch, the ball often landed in the water which made good handling difficult.

”The ball was in a permanent state of greasiness,” said reports. The Australians adapted better and won convincingly, 32-3.

Rugby did not figure at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not forget it. The 1916 Games were scheduled for Berlin and planned to include rugby. This move was not welcomed by the RFU at Twickenham who rejected a request for support from Hanover Rugby Club. In the end World War One forced the cancellation of the 1916 Olympics anyway.

After the First World War, an Inter Allied Games was organised in 1919. The American rugby team, drawn exclusively from California, performed well.

A few months later, they made a tour of British Columbia and won every match. As a result, the American Olympic Committee decided they would be allowed to represent the United States at the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games. 

The traditional rugby nations were suspicious of this tournament. The British Olympic Association announced that the Rugby Football Union had decided to cut Olympic ties because “Rugby football is not suitable for the Olympic syllabus”.

France were the strongest team in continental Europe. Czechoslovakia and Romania were also scheduled to enter but soon withdrew.

So France and the United States remained to contest the Olympic title. On the first Sunday of September 1920, The Americans sprung a shock to win 8-0.

“The victory surprised French rugby fans to such an extent that they desired to see this California team in action,” wrote Charles Tilden Junior, a member of the American squad.

A tour of France was hurriedly organised and the Americans won three of their four matches.

The 1924 Olympics was awarded to Paris and rugby was maintained on the programme. The RFU and other Home Unions had remained aloof from the Olympic Games.

Financial considerations made it impossible for South Africa, New Zealand or Australia to take part. By contrast, the French were enthusiastic and indicated that their Olympic matches would be considered as “official internationals".

Still smarting after their unexpected loss in 1920, they were determined to reverse the result. 

En-route for Paris to defend their title, the Americans arrived in Britain to prepare. It had taken some effort to persuade the English authorities that all the players were bona fide amateurs. Harlequins captain Adrian Stoop had enquired “whether the Harlequins should play the Californian team?”

The RFU offered “no objection, provided the Harlequins took necessary precautions”. The presence in the American team of Alan Valentine, an Oxford Blue, helped reassure the English authorities.

The Wisden Rugby annual described the American team "as splendidly built and in grand condition."

They beat a Services XV but lost to Blackheath and Harlequins.Then the British Olympic Association staged a banquet in their honour.

Lord Decies commended their “wonderful and very broadminded spirit” in a toast.

Soon the Americans were sailing to Boulogne. “We arrived from England after the roughest boat ride most of us had ever experienced and were barely able to struggle ashore,” recalled team member Norman Cleaveland later.

They found their way barred by the French customs officers who insisted that their papers were not in order. Some reports said that the rugby players forced their way ashore and over the next few days there were uncomplimentary reports about the episode in French newspapers.

When the Americans practiced, they returned to find their dressing rooms ransacked.

The tournament was played over three consecutive Sundays in May at the Stade de Colombes. The French ran in 13 tries to beat Romania 61-3 in the opening match.

The Americans were not quite as dominant the following week. They still beat Romania 37-0 but the crowd booed every score.

The following weekend, the gold medal showdown was played in front of 30,000 spectators and proved a brutal affair. The Americans scored first but French lock forward Marcel Frederique Lubin-Lebrere was cautioned for “swinging a Carpentier like blow to Dick Hyland’s jaw” according to the New York Times.

The Americans kept their nerve and even the official report conceded that they “fully deserved their victory” by the margin of 17-3. But when the flags were raised at the post match ceremony the strains of the American anthem could hardly be heard, owing to the terrific catcalling and booing as the Americans walked off the field.

The Americans were not the only rugby players to win Olympic gold in 1924. Four hundred metre champion Eric Liddell, made famous after his death by the film Chariots of Fire, was as well known in his lifetime for his feats as a Scotland rugby international.

In 1924 it was also possible to win a gold medal for art. Luxembourg artist Jean Jacoby took rugby as the inspiration for his winning painting.

Rugby did not figure on the Olympic programme again but the IOC continued to discuss its re-introduction. By 1930, it was still included in the regulations alongside basketball, lawn tennis, hockey, polo , water polo and pelota. These were described as “athletic games from which the organising committee may select those it can organise provided the finals are completed during the official period of the Games".

In the run-up to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, there was a rugby tournament but this was not part of the official Olympic programme.

After the war, the Organising Committee for the 1948 Games in London reported an application for inclusion from rugby. It was turned down along with similar requests from gliding, model yachting and folk dancing!

In 1950, organisers of the Helsinki Games announced that they would include rugby as a demonstration sport in 1952 alongside "pesapallo" (Finnish baseball). Unfortunately, “Negotiations with the Rugby Football Union in England failed to lead to results".

Rugby was replaced by a demonstration of handball.

A few years later, the official Olympic Review spoke of  “a rumour which has been spreading in Italy asking for the introduction and inclusion of Rugby in the 1960 Rome Olympic Games". The IOC poured cold water on this idea. Overtures to the rugby authorities when the Games visited Tokyo in 1964 also drew a blank.

There was briefly talk of including rugby at the 1988 Games, but the Seoul organisers had other priorities, not least a request from North Korea to co-host the Games.

By this time, rugby union had finally launched its own World Cup. New Zealand were convincing winners of a 16-team tournament in 1987.  

Not everyone in the sport was enthusiastic at first, but the competition soon took off, particularly after South Africa’s memorable 1995 victory on home soil, watched by a delighted Nelson Mandela.

By this time an agreement had also been signed by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch in Cardiff. It confirmed the International Rugby Board (IRB) as an Olympic recognised Federation once again.

Each 15-a-side Rugby World Cup takes more than a month to complete, such is the intense physical competition, so the IRB launched a campaign for the seven-a-side format to be included in the Olympics.

They promised “a thrilling format, fast and furious action and more medal chances for more nations”.

By this time, London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe had already unveiled a commemorative plaque at Rugby School. “The role played by one of Britain’s oldest schools and arguably Britain’s most famous headmaster in the development of the modern Olympic movement is to be celebrated,” he said. The IRB emphasised its shared history.

The contemporary Olympic Movement was also receptive. The IOC Executive Board recommended the inclusion of rugby sevens in the 2016 Olympics.

In October 2009, at the full IOC Session in Copenhagen, rugby sevens was included by a convincing margin. It was a decision which must have pleased the IOC President Jacques Rogge, himself a former Belgian rugby international.

The Olympic tournaments will be for 12 nations in men and women’s competitions in the Deodoro Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Regional competitions will decide the line up.

For the next month at least, though, the focus is firmly on the 15-a-side Rugby World Cup. Appropriately perhaps, the 20  sides which take part include the United States of America, still for almost another year, the reigning Olympic champions.