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After a period where Scotland’s international and club sides have gone through a grim ten-year period with little success, more children play rugby in Scotland than ever before.
When player participation numbers there were reported in another article on the Roar, some of the readers doubted their validity.
Why?
Well, because in most countries where rugby is an established sport, people associate its ebbs and flow in popularity with the national or club sides’ success, and usually, we are right in doing so.
This is where we all have been mistaken.
I’m writing this as well, because I have read comments before, suggesting that the failure of the Wallabies could doom rugby in Australia.
However, Scotland’s case shows that their success or failure could be irrelevant to popularity of the sport, given a different approach by the union.
Of course, a national side’s success makes an impact on who wants to play the sport but it is not the only or even the best way to popularize a sport.
So, what is the secret to this tremendous rise in rugby’s popularity in Scotland?
Well, it’s simple really.
The Scottish Rugby Union took the same approach to rugby as the unions in the USA, Russia and other developing unions.
They decided that they want to increase participation numbers by 50% and so they relied on staff and volunteers to go to schools that didn’t coach rugby and coach children there.
It worked.
In 2009, the year that Ireland won the grand slam, Leinster won the Heineken cup, Munster the Magners league and Scotland fought to avoid the wooden spoon in the six-nations, rugby participation had increased by 33% in two years in Ireland and by 31% in Scotland.
There was hardly any difference in the numbers.
However, Scotland relied on free coaching, which is more controllable in the long run, therefore a more successful approach to spreading a sport’s popularity.
That’s the wonderful thing about rugby. It’s great fun to play. That’s what I thought as a child and that’s what children all over the world think when they get an opportunity to play it even if the people who represent their country win nothing at all.
Children may, of course, want to emulate sports stars, but they also love to have fun.
So even if their parents don’t play the sport and they’ve never seen it on television (like my nephews, who now also love it), if they think it’s fun they’ll play it and keep playing it.
I have included links to some articles I found while discussing this development.
None are very new, but they should help clarify any questions readers may have on this subject.
The most recent of these is from 2010, which is annoying as I read about the record numbers recently, somewhere else and now can’t find that specific article.
However maybe one of you will be able to reference it.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article5461456.ece
http://www.scottishrugby.org/content/view/1189/2/
http://www.sportzpower.com/?q=content/rugby-popularity-participation-growing-study&page=0%2C1
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article5461456.ece
Rugby is the third most popular field sport in Scotland, behind football and cricket.
But the gap between football’s popularity and player numbers and rugby’s is massive.
Football has a huge profile in Scotland and has massive attendances, whereas the rugby clubs are unloved and poorly supported with worse attendances often than the Italian sides in the Magners league, even though the Italian sides only joined it this year.
In the newspapers there it gets a tenth of the coverage of football.
I’m mentioning all this just to show that if the SRU can increase the player numbers in Scotland, where rugby is not very popular and is competing with other field sports, the international side struggled for almost a decade, and the professional sides seem to be dying on their feet, then any country in the world can do the same.
This is good news for everyone who loves this sport and a great example for other unions to follow.
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.