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As a casual fan I watched and largely enjoyed the lead up, the match and Homebush in general. The Woodies are my union team, my son plays hooker in a park team, and some of my best mates come from rugby.
I thought I would share my observations about the crowd, the match and other matters, with the odd comment pertaining to how it will affect the future growth of rugby union.
I went to the third Test (ok it’s my fault, I am a jinx at rugby matches). My first observation was after the match the ground announcer said the tour had drawn I think 430,000 people through the gate.
My mind said at so much a ticket, add merchandise sales, add what state governments pay to play in key stadiums.
My calculations say that is probably over $40 million, which should help fill the coffers and leave a tidy sum for the ARU to work with.
I found the crowd interesting and if this crowd was reflective of wider rugby in Australia then me thinks rugby has some issues moving forward
My observation was the crowd was very well behaved, mostly Anglo with a few Asians. I did not see the broad spectrum of nationalities that make up Sydney.
Further I saw by comparison to Socceroo matches far fewer women. Hard to say but most of the women there seem to be supporting the Lions.
Not saying there were no women there supporting Australia, just by comparison nowhere near as many.
When we left the match and headed towards the station, I was astounded to see the platform for trains going west largely empty.
Trains to the city the platform was packed. Many I guess where from overseas however it was more the lack of people going west, my train was about a third full when it left.
Both these observations seem to support the Eastern Sydney branding sometimes applied to rugby.
The rating for an alive and well-advertised match that was a decider would make me worry.
The free-to-air rating for capital cities was 875,000 to these needs to be added regional viewers and Fox, both should be out soon.
The last football match with similar media lead up broadcast on a one hour delay and mid-week was 1.5 million with Fox 530,000.
Back to the crowd as I said well-behaved, but little singing and cheering.
There was no Green and Gold Army, RBB, Cove (Sydney FC home end). I understand we were losing but found again by comparison the crowd flat.
The match what can you say, some observations again from a casual.
For the life of me and I played half for a while I cannot understand how the decisions are made and as the game changes so do the scrums calls.
Overall for me there were too many stoppages. Was impressed by the tackling by both sides.
Very, very, very unimpressed with the lunatic group who through bubble-market research, played over the PA Waltzing Matilda when we scored, played intense music when a decision was being made.
Looking forward what out of this game would make me watch rugby on tv and go to matches. Further, how could rugby expand and challenge rugby league or AFL for the top sport.
My observation of this one match is not great for the future. Overall the crowd did not represent the broader Australian public, nor were there large numbers heading west of Lidcombe.
How does rugby widen its support base? How does rugby increase its tv ratings? How does it grow its player base?
I have no idea how to do these things, but offer a warning (for what it worth coming from casual observations of a one match experience) rugby seems to be a crossroads, it needs to expand or risk erosion to its existing base as football and AFL expand into rugby areas like private school and Eastern Sydney.
To expand is the hard part but at some stage investment in growing rugby is needed otherwise a continuation of the same will see rugby falling well behind the other football codes.
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.