Why rugby union must innovate or die: Part I

I have only just joined The Roar, and I have come across this good article. Sadly, I think union has no other option but to perish in this country. The administrators of the game lack vision, passion and motivation. As a result, they will not get the required funds to take on AFL and NRL. Here in Townsville, clearly league dominates, but AFL is growing. In years to come, AFL will be significantly more popular than union in Townsville. For the second year in a row, a NAB cup is being played here. Are we going to get a Reds game? Clearly, no, because the establishment do not care about union outside the capital cities and that appears to only be at elite schools.At present, we can't even get a NQ schoolboys team together.Those who control rugby union in Townsville do not appear to do all they can for the game either. So, in my opinion, Australian rugby union is on the endangered list soon to become extinct. Are we allowed to have a public hanging for the administrators at the top who have allowed the game to die due to their rich boy arrogant attitude.

I dont agree with the basic point of this article. I cannot speak about what is going on in Australia, but across much of the world Rugby Union is growing at an unprecedented rate and is so far ahead of league that it is pointless even comparing them. And it isn't just in the non-traditional rugby countries that growth is happening. Here in Ireland rugby has exploded in the last 10 years. Previously it would have been seen as an elitist, private school sport but this has changed completely and it is now starting to challenge soccer as the most popular 'foreign' sport (GAA will always be number one). The French Top 14 is massive and is perhaps overtaking the French soccer league in terms of prestige and popularity. In Europe there are is considerable growth in grassroots rugby in a host of countries, which is in a large part attributable to people looking for an alternative to primadonna, overpaid soccer players. It may take a few years for this to have an appreciable effect on the performances of their national teams, but I can tell you for a fact that if their is even limited international success in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Russia or Holland, the game will surge in popularity, much as it has been doing in italy recently. Rugby has always been strong in a number of eastern european countries and is even the national sport in Georgia. What I think may happen in Europe in the next decade is the introduction of a promotion/relegation system between the current 6 nations and the second tier nations which i have mentioned above. It would be contingent on these countries raising their playing standards quite a bit from their current level, but if their age grade sides keep improving as they currently are there is no reason why this wont happen. If this were to transpire, it would be a landmark moment for the development of rugby in Europe as it would undoubtedly lead to much more media coverage and larger attendances. There is a huge appetite for rugby in Europe, and all that's required to exploit it is more competitive and successful national sides. If anyone doubts this, just look at the way Italy have been packing out 70,000 seater stadiums for a few years now. This despite the fact that they are nearly always expected to lose! I know from speaking to continental Europeans that rightly or wrongly, rugby is perceived as a sport of honesty and courage, and as something of an antidote to all the crap they see every week on the soccer pitch. This is why many are choosing to bring their kids to their nearest rugby club, and I can promise you that many more will do so if the profile of the game increases as it has been doing. And I haven't even mentioned the stunning growth in places such as USA, Canada, Japan, parts of South America and Asia. I have a friend who moved to British Columbia and he was taken aback by how popular the game was. And talk to anyone involved in rugby in North america and they will tell you that there is a genuine buzz about rugby like there has never been before. So basically your article is fundamentally flawed. You are simply taking the problems rugby is facing in australia and projecting them onto the rest of the world without any justification. I'm no blind fantasist, but I can still see that there is only one way Rugby Union is going globally, and that's vertical!

As french, I can tell you than Rugby League ("rugby à XIII" in french called sometimes "Jeu à XIII" means "game at 13" ) is nothing compare to Rugby Union ("rugby à XV"). Recently both national teams played in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais which is not a rugby area but a clearly football one. The rugby league national team played against Wales front of 10 000 people in Lens which was considered as a huge success. The match was broadcasted on the qatari sport tv "beinsport" on their third channel so it aw not a prioriy for them. At the opposite, the rugby union national team played in the new Lille stadium front of 45,000 people and the match was broadcasted by the main public french channel. Excepted in Perpignan, rugby league doesnt have grass root level in France so dont believe it can huge ...

Don't those match up look very evenly in all three of those sections? Any of those teams might beat another. It would be great for the game!

As you may know moving the El Superclaico is almost like moving the Sabbath of a religion to another day. That is how much it meant. I found a lot of articles around the Internet about people not buying into the 2007 fairytale by arguing we basically had Scotland in the quarters. But they forget we were placed in a group with Ireland and France and won it. We actually beat the host nation (France) twice. Not easy beating them I think Kiwi's will agree.

The Great G Nepia - that is correct. League is at best the 5th most popular sport, but people reading the papers or on line sites that are Aussie influenced often think it is bigger. The other sports all have national appeal, whereas outside the usual demographics, there isn't much interest in league at all.

bloke named Nick Evans played AFL in NZ and was a Swans draft pick before the Swans dissed him and he went onto to become a Highlander (Super) and an All Black before moving to England

Well rugby union has way more traction in Isreal and Palestine. The NZRU and the NZ ALL Blacks are giving high performance coaching, i don't see the NRL really doing a John Ribot and trying to latch a rugby league ball into every kid from suburban Shenzen to Tel Aviv. But the NZ AB'S no less are helping out Isreali and Palestine rugby union http://www.allblacks.com/news/20622/Middle-East-rugby-to-get-help-from-NZ Isreals' IRB world ranking in 15 a side is 53 they have improved, they were 56 a little while ago but are getting better. Turkey rugby is getting big now too, like Pakistan Turkey is slowly building a rugby culture as is Afghanistan. Afghansitan played there 1st competitive club match this year in Kabul in rugby union http://www.irb.com/newsmedia/regional/newsid=2063280.html So rugby is moving around the world faster than John Ribot can give out a stedden to kids in suburban Shenzen.

I heard Palestine is playing Israel in a 3 match rugby league series next year. And we thought State of Origin had emotion, wait till those clashes.

Except that in the likes of Russia, China and Mexico the installation of Rugby as a school sport is undertaken by the respective Dept. of Education and Ministries for Sport. Can you distinguish the difference here? State backed initiatives tend to gain more traction than an individuals driving their personal sporting choice.

It's like lacrosse is a school sport in a couple of schools in Sydney. There's a teacher who is interested enough to make it happen.

Hemel Hempstead Stags are a case study in how RL or any game for that matter can move into new territory, However it's a 30 year project and needs someone of the dedication of Bob Brown (an Australian) to achieve those results.

Using last years RWC the plate and bowl would look like something like this. Cup Ireland v Wales England v France South Africa v Australia NZ v Argentina Semis Wales vs France NZ vs Australia Final NZ v France Plate Italy v Fiji Samoa v USA Tonga v Georgia Scotland v Canada Bowl Russia v Namibia Romania v Japan

Isn't the issue for junior rugby that it is very hard to qualify to coach young players and there are significant problems with insurance for coaches?

Given RU Sevens was originally conceived as a fund raising carnival and for many years was restricted to end of season "entertainments" like the Middlesex Sevens I can't see why so many RU chaps get so excited about the inclusion (note not re-inclusion) of Sevens in the Olympics. As a sidebar the 15 a side Olympic comps (1900 to 1924) was really a bit of joke too as most "national" sides were no such thing and the numbers of teams participating was very small - sometimes just two or three. Sevens was always a game that was fun for the participants with the a chance for teams that weren't going to win outright to win the Plate etc and for spectators to sit in Spring sunshine and watch a form of rugby with players they would not normally see playing whilst socialsing and enjoying picnics and large amounts of beer, It is in reality a silly game - often one sided routs. The few times I have watched the IRB games on television the games have been really non-contests once one side has got a head start. I can't see a world TV audience become so enamored of Sevens at the Olympics that they will part with their hard earned to watch the 15 a side game live or on TV. This will be exacerbated by the fact that teams will be participating because they won a regional qualification ie. the competition won't feature the best 12 teams in the world. There is also the issue of how the Home Unions will handle the selection of a UK side - or has that been sorted?

The Melbourne Storm making the NRL grandfinal is similar to the NZ Warriors where both teams will get alot of people watching it because they made NRL showpiece bt when they play their normal league games they be luck to get half of that number. its like us and NFL we only watch the Superbowl and thats it.

Haha...he meant Folau. I was wondering were the reference came from.

Have GWS moved to North Sydney? AFL has shown rugby league how to develop a sport. AFL have done really well to to promote their game at those private schools in NSW and QLD. I coach and a rugby team and work in one of those GPS schools and AFL have made their resources available and paid for coaches to come and train teams in our schools. We got a letter two months agon from a Australian rugby league development officer asking if we like to participate in one of their tournament. That was it, no help, coaches what so ever. just aletter to participate and this was right into the middle of our rugby union season.

Col Quinn Can you tell us which rugby league comp outrate the Six Nations and International test macthes on BBC?

WCR . While Sledge didn't mean Israel the nation (God Bless there cotton socks) i'm glad you bought it up ,seemingly New Zealand is sending coaches there to help out with there rugby skills ,so go Israel.