Mike Miller, the chief executive of the International Rugby Board (IRB), said: "The Olympics has a huge stadium for the opening ceremony and a week later it has the athletics, so there is nothing in the stadium for five or six days.

 

"We could fill that stadium for two or three days and we will bring rugby fans to the Olympic Games in droves.

 

"They would support not just the rugby but also the Games as a whole.

 

"That is something we have, that a lot of the other sports trying to get in do not necessarily have."

 

Rugby sevens is one of seven sports trying to get onto the Olympic programme for the 2016 Olympics, which will be held in either Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo.

 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) are due to vote on what sports should be included at its Session in Copenhagen in October 2009 and Miller is leading a high-profile campaign on rugby's behalf.

 

If it is successful, Miller believes it could lead to the global expansion of the sport.

 

Interviewed by Scrum V, a show to be broadcast today on BBC Wales, he said:  "We are trying to grow the game in new territories and are spending $50 million (£28.4 million) a year.

 

"But we are being told by member unions in countries such as Russia, China and the United States that if rugby became an Olympic sport everything would change.

 

"The Government would see the potential for the sevens teams to win a medal and as a result they would have government funding and better access to facilities.

 

"The smaller nations [in an Olympic context] such as Fiji would also have the chance to win a medal, as would Welsh rugby players as part of the Great Britain team.

 

"Rugby players do not often get the chance to mingle with other sports.

 

"To win an Olympic gold medal is a big dream and why shouldn't rugby players get to do that as well as other sportsmen and women?"

 

Rugby has not appeared on the Olympic programme since the Games in Paris in 1924, when the winners were the United States.

 

The six other sports trying to get elected into the Olympics are baseball, golf, karate, roller sports, squash and softball.