New ARU boss says sevens is way forward
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New Australian Rugby Union (ARU) boss Bill Pulver says Australia is lagging behind the world for funding in sevens rugby, which he sees as the growth area for the game.
Pulver also wants to revive a third-tier national rugby competition and believes it could fall to the responsibility of Super Rugby clubs.
Starting in the top job this week after replacing John O’Neill, Pulver was addressing a 1000-strong crowd at a Weary Dunlop lunch where the Melbourne Rebels squad was introduced.
With sevens to be played at the Olympics in Rio in 2016, Pulver said it was an area to be further embraced.
Currently, Australian sevens representatives can’t play Super Rugby, and Wallabies such as Melbourne’s James O’Connor and Kurtley Beale are unable to play sevens – something Pulver would like to see changed.
“I am convinced that sevens rugby is a big, big part of the future of the game,” said Pulver.
“It is going to be the best opportunity for us to diversify the rugby audience in Australia.
“The opportunities to expanding our geographies and our demographics is sevens.”
The Australian men’s sevens side has long been used as a development team and is ranked 10th in the world while the women’s team is No.2.
Pulver said rugby needed to dangle a sevens gold medal in front of school students to convince them to play the sport rather than AFL or rugby league.
Rugby Union Players’ Association boss Greg Harris has proposed a plan for a third-tier competition involving nine Australian universities, however Pulver was more enthusiastic about the Super teams taking ownership.
He said he’d like to see academies in NSW and Queensland, currently run by the ARU, returned to the states.
“It should be within the Super franchises themselves,” he said of the third-tier league.
“We have no direct pathway for players after school – they essentially disappear from high-quality competitive rugby until they make it for Super Rugby.
“There’s a good case for those academies back to states instead of being centralised and they become (a) source of players for third-tier competition.”
Pulver also addressed the shocking revelations this week of doping in sport that rugby has so far escaped.
He said the ARU set up an integrity unit in 2008, led by former detective and Wallabies team manager Phil Thompson, which meant the code was better prepared than its rivals.
But he said rugby still needed to be vigilant.
“While I’m delighted that rugby wasn’t front and centre in terms of the current review, it would be naive of us to think that it’s not an issue.”
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February 9th 2013 @ 10:20am
Tim Murray said | February 9th 2013 @ 10:20am | Report comment
Sevens is the way forward for all Bills reasons and more. It will do to 15 a side what 20-20 has done to cricket. Viewers/ spectators want action and feel part of an event. We have the chance to attract a much younger audience which is easily seen if you attend an IRB event.
Tim
February 9th 2013 @ 3:18pm
Justin2 said | February 9th 2013 @ 3:18pm | Report comment
Yes but has test cricket yielded dividends due to 20/20? Different games, they just happen to have the same name
February 9th 2013 @ 12:30pm
tc said | February 9th 2013 @ 12:30pm | Report comment
Melissa
What a good positive article for once ,despite what some say on this site Australian rugby is moving ahead and 7s will just add to that momentum . The administration of the ARU has now been changed and will hopefully lead to a more nation wide approach to Australias vast distances .
Tim personally I think 7s will compliment 15s not over shadow it , I think its greatest asset is its party type atmosphere and as long as they keep it clean it will attract the young for the right reasons.
February 9th 2013 @ 12:40pm
Matthew Skellett said | February 9th 2013 @ 12:40pm | Report comment
absolutely right TC makes you think what a sorry performance Mr O’Neill did second edition but it’s early days and the proof will be in the pudding served up to the Australian public but here’s to exciting times ahead
February 9th 2013 @ 12:46pm
Bruce Lee said | February 9th 2013 @ 12:46pm | Report comment
Kids, say no to drugs. Come plays rugby sevens instead and you can win a medal!
February 9th 2013 @ 2:43pm
Cattledog said | February 9th 2013 @ 2:43pm | Report comment
A good article and some good vision shown by Bill Pulver. Financially, giving the 3rd tier to the Super franchises makes significant sense as there’s no need to replicate in many cases. I believe, however, that there probably needs to be more than five teams so the ARU will have to decide how best to swing this aspect. Perhaps the Reds and Waratahs can support two academies, an additional one in Western Sydney and a QLD Country based academy (Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast or further north if appropriate). Obviously, they would require additional funding from the ARU to persue this. The ARU could also have an academy making up eight in total. Games would be played as curtain raisers to the Super games.
In doing this, however, players should be drawn mainly from the premier players currently playing around the countryside and those who show the necessary skills and promise from the areas without a premier level comp.
I also like the idea of pushing the rugby 7s approach. Whilst some 15 man game purists may see this as a degradation to some extend, the following and extent of younger support coupled with the 2016 Olympics means significant inroads to the 15 man game can be made if marketed correctly and we give it a high enough priority to be up there in medal contention.
Perhaps the future is looking somewhat brighter for rugby.
February 9th 2013 @ 3:01pm
p.Tah said | February 9th 2013 @ 3:01pm | Report comment
Mr Pulver have a chat with Peters and Tew and get a SANZAR Sevens set up over the summer perIod. 16 teams in total: 5 teams from NZ, 5 from Oz and 6 from SA (includes the Kings and Lions). If SA is unavailable bring in the Pacific Islands.
Host 2 or 3 tournaments in Australian and NZ when the Spring Tour is on in November. Winter football fans are in withdrawal straight after the Grand Finals and will watch any type of football in our time zones for a fix.
Wallabies/All Blacks wont be available but the next best will.
February 11th 2013 @ 2:24pm
JBees said | February 11th 2013 @ 2:24pm | Report comment
Nice thought but it’s not going to happen in a hurray. NZ have many comps with our own Provincal teams all 20 of them which are seriously contested every summer and have been since 1975 except 87, 88 & 2003. I went to a NZ club comp before the Wellington 7′s and a club team ( Te Puna) that had 5 NZ players, (Gordon T given them a run) lost to a bunch of nobody’s (Rangataua) in the final which seems to make sense after the way NZ played in Wellington. Oz played better than them during that tournament and should’ve gone through instead of NZ, just my thoughts.
February 9th 2013 @ 3:02pm
nickoldschool said | February 9th 2013 @ 3:02pm | Report comment
No doubt sevens has its place but I have the impression the money spent for its development will be be taken from the XV format, which would be an error IMO.
Sevens is a different sport than union, more so than 20/20 and test cricket IMO. Am not sure that the people we will attract by developing it will switch to XV, go to stadiums, play the game etc. yes there is an audience for it and most of us love watching these two day tournaments. Would we want more? Not sure. The XV game still has a lot of appeal and I think we have not yet seen what it could be if we find the right competition format and rules. It has the potential to be as ‘fun’ and exciting as the sevens with this extra intensity and diversity that only the XV man game can bring. Hope Mr Pulver doesn’t only think strass and olympics. There are many non Olympic sports which are great to watch and play too.
February 9th 2013 @ 3:11pm
Hightackle said | February 9th 2013 @ 3:11pm | Report comment
No, the way forward is to change it from 7s to 8s and bring in 5 imports per team.
February 9th 2013 @ 6:23pm
Jock Munro said | February 9th 2013 @ 6:23pm | Report comment
How about fixing the breakdown laws and re introducing competition for the ball?
Stop the tackled player playing the ball on the ground(relese before making ground contact),get rid of the use or lose it laws and those to do with entering the ruck from one direction.
Consider allowing players to scavenge for the ruck ball with their hands but the tackled player must release and not be allowed to play the ball.
I guarantee if these things were done, there would not be stadiums big enough to hold Test crowds.
February 9th 2013 @ 6:24pm
joe b said | February 9th 2013 @ 6:24pm | Report comment
we should focus on sydney and the fair weather supporters of the warratahs because once that has been addressed australian rugby will be back on track. And put more academies in sydney and queensland as these are new major growth areas for the sport full of untapped potential that has had little exposure to rugby…another boon for aussie rugby. Also, keep calling the national team “qantas wallabies” as it stirs a stronger patriotic fervor to represent/support a commercial airline than just australia by itself. Perhaps another way of increasing revenue would be to sell broadcast rights for all tests to foxtel, not just super rugby, which will at least enable the now more concentrated group of viewers the opportunity to watch the game live and not delayed several hours on FTA.
But, perhaps sevens rugby in Rio in the midst of the olympics over a two week period is the shining light….personally I think quade cooper will get more exposure for australian rugby by boxing a couple of times a year.
Pulver has to take a leaf out of AFL’s book… grow the base, and the pyramid will get taller. Re-instate the perth and melbourne academies, get more coverage (and live coverage at that) of rugby (super and test) on FTA. Subsidise grass roots competitions. Start focusing more on non-traditional areas, rugby may not dominate but at least it will grow.
February 9th 2013 @ 8:14pm
Timmypig said | February 9th 2013 @ 8:14pm | Report comment
Joe B said: “Also, keep calling the national team “qantas wallabies” as it stirs a stronger patriotic fervor to represent/support a commercial airline than just australia by itself.”
Joe is the the irony smiley gif missing there … ? Sorry if I’ve misunderstood – you WANT to keep calling the Wallabies “The QANTAS Wallabies” ?
YIKES.
OK, if sevens is worth more of the ARU’s time, and Mr Pulver’s time, I’m all for it. Maybe sevens should be the home of garish playing strips, music on the PA system, fireworks, and strip test and rep rugger back to old-fashioned, minimalist, small-c conservative, dignified ethos. Note I said ‘rep rugger’, not ‘franchise’. Franchise – ugh – what an ugly term to describe what should be an emotional touch stone for the fan. The Super teams in Australia have the advantage of being identifiable with a geographic entity; this should be the basis upon which people support their teams. For Rebels and Force in particular, getting locals into the squads should be of the highest priority.
I’m picking the scab off an old wound, I concede, but it makes my blood boil that the ARU was the holier-than-thou custodian of tradition when Mr. Murdoch wanted to buy rugby in 1995, but the quickest to sell EVERYTHING as soon as the war was won. If Bill Pulver wants to recapture the magic, he should pick up and bring back the things that made it magical. Because frankly, and I say this as a bloke who played for school, uni, regiment and club, and whose 6 year old is just about to start his first season, the game to me has barely any of the magic that it did in years gone by. Mostly I have stopped going to elite level games. Mr Pulver, if you or your spies are reading this, please – PLEASE – give us back the game we fell in love with.
February 9th 2013 @ 11:32pm
atlas said | February 9th 2013 @ 11:32pm | Report comment
Qantas has been a proud supporter of rugby for over 10 years and are pleased to have been the Naming Rights Sponsor of the Qantas Wallabies
There are eleven major sponsors, but the team is not referred to as eg Samsung Wallabies, KooGa Wallabies, Hahn Superdry Wallabies, Tom Waterhouse Com Wallabies and so on.
QANTAS pay extra for the naming rights privilege, and as such i will support their sponsorship by using their full name.
February 10th 2013 @ 3:57pm
Chris @ the Old Barbershop said | February 10th 2013 @ 3:57pm | Report comment
I’m hearing your bark big dog. But what chance does Rugby have when BP says things like this ““The Wallabies are the most valuable asset in the Australian rugby product range, and so we need to preserve that profit.”