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There has been a lot of talk on the Roar about establishing another national Rugby Union competition. I think it is time to be realistic about the strengths of Union in this country.
My favourite game is Rugby League. I will watch pretty much everything involving a ball and grass, but it is the greatest game that is in my heart. Being from Newcastle, it is probably in my DNA too.
That I am a League boy immediately gets me labelled a troll when posting on Union issues, and truth be told after all the dastardly things the upper class game has done to the working class game over the years, it is hard to have sympathy for Union.
The only reason I do have sympathy is that I know there are good honest people out there who just happen to love fat blokes lying about in the mud, and blonde haired boys named Lachlan and Angus kicking from the deep. And I have sympathy for them.
That smidge of sympathy is why I’m here giving you Union fans the brutal truth.
My balanced outsider’s view of Union’s strengths and weaknesses is as follows:
Strengths:
– Strong links to universities and private schools.
– Strong old boys networks – which it leverages to get sponsorships larger than what it can substantiate on viewing numbers and popular interest.
– Clubs steeped in history and culture.
– Appeal to recent arrival Saffas, Kiwis and Poms.
– Influence in the media that far outsizes its popular interest.
– Strong (but fading) international appeal and a strong (but in danger) provincial Rugby comp.
– It has massive snob appeal. A proclaimed interest in Rugby (as opposed to that vulgar working class game) is a big ego/status boost for many snob types.
This snob appeal also helps it in “non-Rugby” states. It is not uncommon for Victorians to proclaim a hatred for League whilst proclaiming that they love Union – all without being able to actually tell you the difference between the games.
Weaknesses:
– Union does not have a tribal appeal to anyone but those in a few postcodes. It has to realise this can not be manufactured (witness the last attempt at an ARC).
– Union does not have a particularly appealing TV product – the beauty in the game is in the playing, not the watching (while I am League boy I really enjoyed playing the odd game of Rugby in my teens, it is a physically far less demanding game and therefore allows much broader participation).
– Union does not have strong grassroots involvement or interest in the areas most people in Australia live, but which it would like to claim (meaning anywhere outside a few wealthy pockets in Sydney, Queensland and the ACT).
– Union does not have a bucket of money anymore – a particularly terrible administrator pissed it up against a wall chasing instant success.
So where does that leave Union?
The Roar Union zealots in here seem to favour going on the attack (with money the ARU does not have) when their game in this country is bordering on irrelevance.
And why is it bordering on irrelevance?
Terrible administration at all levels and a game lacking the appeal (fast movement, big hits, spectacular athleticism) of what are far and away Australia’s favourite codes in the NRL and AFL.
The ELVs were the key to making the game more than a cure for insomnia – and got trampled by northern hemisphere imperialism.
The bucket of money from the 2002 World Cup was the key to a sustainable and growing ARU – and it got pissed away by delusional megalomaniacs who greatly overestimated their worth.
Until Rugby fixes its game and fixes its administration, it will never go anywhere in this country.
Until it has tribal appeal, it will never have a successful ARC type comp.
Due to its upper class origins and the success of the (more spectacular and inherently tribal) working class games in Australia, it probably never will have widespread tribal appeal.
All that doesn’t mean it’s time to give up – far from it. What it is time to do is carve a niche and expand that niche organically.
Union is never going to win a head on battle with the three much larger football codes. Any attempt to do so is only going to drain the ARU further and may well spur the other codes, particularly the NRL, to counter-attack. A properly funded and aggressively administered NRL could well deal out some significant blows to Rugby Union.
It is time to take a more strategic, long term approach to growing Rugby.
If I were an ARU administrator, there are two things I would be doing.
Number one is bound to be controversial and may not be realistic, but I’m throwing it out there. The ARU needs to insist on the ELVs, and the northern hemisphere cartel be damned. Three of the five top Rugby Union nations in the world are in the Super 14/15.
It is time to lean on our Saffa and Kiwi brothers to save the game from the men who smell of rich mahogany. Get the Argies on board, appeal to French flair, and ram them through. If they won’t play nice, think about breaking away from the IRB. The relevance of the game in Australia depends on it.
Number two is simply that I would be focussing on what Rugby does best, and what has served it for over 100 years in this country – private schools, universities and historic clubs.
The very things that certain Rugby administrators have been very good at ignoring.
Kurtley Beale is a great example of my preferred approach. The ARU should be using the lure of a top-flight education to nab as many young top-flight athletes as possible.
Put any money they have into targeted scholarships to GPS schools. You get the kid, you get the family – so you build a grassroots support network.
Get the kids and parents involved in their local Union club, and use those clubs to form an end of season club championship. Say the top three clubs from Sydney, top two from Brisbane and one to be determined by an affiliated states knock out. There is your “third tier”.
It may take 10 years, but it will solidify Union’s strengths, win the one by one battle to get kids playing the game and parents interested in it, and (eventually) lead to a competitive Wallaby team, which, let’s face it, is the only time anyone outside of the eastern suburbs of Sydney cares about them.
People caring means more dollars. More dollars means more investment in the future of the game.
It may well be short term pain for long term gain.
Manufacture another ARC and prepare to be the next Australian Baseball League. Too much way too soon.
Start at the ground up and Rugby Union may actually have a future in this country.
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.