The city hosted the latest stop on the International Rugby Board world tour at the weekend, and John O'Neill, the chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union (ARU), said that they had held talks with the South Australian government about the 2013 event.

 

The only other country to have so far expressed an interest in bidding for the event is Russia.

 

Despite a slight downturn in crowd numbers for this year's edition of the tournament, which was expanded from two to three days O'Neill said there would likely be greater expansion of Adelaide's role when the rebuilt members' stand at Adelaide Oval is completed.

 

He said: "There's no firm commitment from anyone but it's been the subject of a bit of discussion over a few oysters today.

 

"The possibility of Adelaide hosting the 2013 rugby World Cup Sevens tournament is worthwhile thinking about."

 

This year's tournament was played with close to half of the Oval unavailable for use due to preparations for the members' stand rebuild, but still attracted a total crowd of about 30,000.

 

South Africa won the tournament with a 26-7 victory over Kenya in the final yesterday.