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With the International Rugby Board’s Annual Report for 2010 being released at the same time as the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, it more or less slid under the radar for most rugby fans.
The report contains a lot of figures and news about how the IRB is trying to grow the game in different regions of the world, including the number of registered players in each of the IRB’s Member nations.
The report also contains the financials of the IRB and its sanctioned tournaments being run around the world.
I wish to concentrate solely on the registered playing numbers for rugby in each of the six Regional Associations of the IRB. If you don’t know the acronyms for these associations, they are as follows.
FIRA-AER (Basically all of the European nations)
NACRA ( North America and the Caribbean nations)
CONSUR (South America)
CAR (Africa)
ARFU (Asia)
FORU (Oceania – our neck of the woods)
I will be starting with the biggest Regional Association in terms of the percentage of registered players in the World. FIRA-AER stands for Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur – Association Européenne de Rugby.
FIRA-AER consists of 37 full member unions and three associate unions (they do not have full member status, and their registered playing numbers are not recorded.) There have been no additions since 2009.
Of the 37 member unions in FIRA-AER, 34 have shown growth, four have decreased in numbers, and Russia has not been recounted since the 2009 IRB report . Of the four that showed decreased, Portugal is the surprise, down from 5,940 registered players in 2009 to 5,270 in 2010.
All the 6 Nations teams have shown growth.
England are up from 698,163 in 2009 to a mind-boggling 1,075,472.
France rose from 273,084 in 2009 to 313,877. I have no doubt they will grow even higher very soon this year.
Italy jumped 7.1% to 66,176 from 61,487, but still has plenty more room to grow.
Ireland I suspect is near saturation point with only a only a .09 percent increase to 153,080, from 152,830.
Wales has finally shown growth after their numbers dropped to 46,324 in 2009 from around 60 000 in 2008. The 2010 report shows they now have 50,557 registered players.
Scotland to me is the biggest surprise with 88,500 compared to 32,817 in 2009. With a 169 percent increase, either they have been working very hard at grassroots level or it’s a typo.
In all the FIRA-AER have 1,945,161 in playing numbers (52.4 percent of the world playing population) in 2010, up from 1,387,863 In 2009. This is a 40 percent increase in player numbers.
I give the FIRA-AER a pass mark, with indications that FIRA-AER rugby is still going very strong. Portugal however should be a slight concern in my opinion.
How about you fellow Roarers?
Here is the full list of the 40 members, with the year they joined, and their number of registered players.
Andorra (1991) 213
Armenia (2004) Associate Member
Austria (1992) 1,573
Azerbaijan (2004) Associate Member
Belgium (1988) 10,917
Bosnia & Herzegovina (1996) 911
Bulgaria (1992) 3,121
Croatia (1992) 2,142
Czech republic (1988) 5,382
Denmark (1988) 2,606
England (1890) 1,075,472
Finland (2001) 374
France (1978) 313,877
Georgia (1992) 4,181
Germany (1988) 11,656
Greece (2009) Associate Member
Hungary (1991) 2,207
Ireland (1886) 153,080
Israel (1988) 755
Italy (1987) 66,176
Latvia (1991) 795
Lithuania (1992) 1,544
Luxembourg (1991) 2,437
Malta (2000) 585
Moldova (1994) 2,610
Monaco (1998) 165
Netherlands (1988) 8,869
Norway (1993) 1,502
Poland (1988) 5,963
Portugal (1988) 5,270
Romania (1987) 9,612
Russia (1990) 14,519
Scotland (1886) 88,500
Serbia (1988) 1,352
Slovenia (1996) 480
Spain (1988) 20,016
Sweden (1988) 3,507
Switzerland (1988) 2,384
Ukraine (1992) 2,880
Wales (1886) 50,557
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.