The move by Sam Burgess to switch codes in time for the 2015 Rugby World Cup is a massive coup for English rugby union and rugby union in general; a PR win heading into one of the make or break Rugby World Cups of the modern era.
It doesn’t matter whether Sam Burgess does well or flops, this battle has already been won. This move really wasn’t made to secure Sam Burgess the player, but Sam Burgess the name.
Despite the NRL and Super League slipping in attendances in 2013, there were several key positives.
The NRL turned over a bumper profit which gives the organisation assurances and options for the future. The code has been able to back all of its teams financially, creating a solid platform to attempt the largest membership drive in the code’s history.
In the Super League, the emergence of the walking headline Marwan Koukash has to be seen as a net positive, taking responsibility for the league’s second leakiest club.
His well documented recruitment drive and elaborate attempted purchases have managed to bring eyeballs and hope back to Salford, causing a stir among the established hierarchy.
The Rugby League World Cup then renewed the passion for international rugby league. Its success has seen a greater push towards organisation and initiative in concern to international fixtures.
The World Cup also created a lot of buzz within England. The tournament’s attendances exceeded most expectations (especially when considering the last English edition in the year 2000) and peaked with a world record international crowd at a final involving two foreign teams.
The move to get the BBC to televise English games was a masterstroke and saw pretty decent figures for rugby league.
The game was abuzz and solidly building momentum, the NRL held the supremely successful Auckland Nines and the opening weekend of the Super League saw attendance records broken and decent viewership figures.
And then with the announcement of the Burgess switch, headlines turned from toasting the Nines and Super League success to an endless stream of press surrounding the departure of one of the game’s biggest stars.
While league was a long way from overshadowing the 15-man code, union was slowly slipping away from the public consciousness. Such a massive public move, and the hubris it was carried out with, are sure to grab attention.
And at the moment attention is what rugby union needs.
Since a peak in 2009/10, premiership rugby has seen its attendances drop every year. International rugby has remained reasonably healthy, though with a World Cup coming up there is certainly a need for hype surrounding the event.
The move to take Burgess has been expertly planned and executed. The RFU needed to generate hype and excitement for both its domestic competition and the critical 2015 World Cup.
The message that “Sam will have to earn his spot” is likely untrue, however it should drive crowds to the matches he plays as well as TV viewers.
Burgess is also doing a pretty good job selling the Rugby World Cup, pointing it out as the reason he’s leaving and reminding everyone that it’s on while giving journalists fuel to speculate and generate hype around the tournament and Sam’s spot within it.
When he is eventually picked the lure of watching a cross-coder trying to adapt should draw in a few extra league fans and the press will have a field day writing pieces on whether he’s ready, or whether others are more deserving of the buzz.
Burgess may be expensive in the short term, but the RFU will make their money back with the Rugby World Cup and Bath obviously believe they’ll make their own back in added attendances.
It is also a massive blow to one of the code’s main competitors in its ambition for international competition.
Taking the best player from England’s league World Cup campaign leaves a massive hole it what was a very promising squad.
England are pretty well stocked for front rowers, but it’s still a loss which England will have to work back from.
TREX
Guest
The rugby press will go nuts if Bath signed up Carter or McCaw. Its the Premiership own press. maybe there's games there played at Wembley, Twickenham that weren't recorded. As for Burgess he would get a few coming to see what the fuss its all about probably the same it did for Chev Walker, Bryce brothers, Raynor, Smith, Eastmond and so on but it won't get much publicity until he's in the England team playing and performing in front of more than 6 million tv views and that's when people takes notice of him. League fans might think its for attention but like I said they could have gone for the All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks players for that. Burgess isn't a house hold name in England certainly the majority of rugby fans in England have never heard of him or seeing him play. I can understand league fans wanting to talk down and death riding rugby in England and your not the first or last to make up such theories. Sam Burgess is a nobody in England and in rugby fans eyes. There are more things more important and news worthy between now and the 2015 RWC in English Rugby. England winning the Six Nations, Autumn tests, Tours down under and clubs going for European Cup glory is a million times more news worthy than Sam "WHO" Burgess even Manu Tuilagi's injury is more news worthy. The English Premiership Rugby is doing fine. More money will come in from BT and SKY for Aviva premiership, Heineken cup, Amlin cup, Anglo-Welsh cup and from sponsors, owners and there's nothing you and your theories can do about it.
Rodney
Roar Pro
But an All Black/ Wallaby/ Saffer wouldn't be able to stir up the Rugby Presses like the Burgess move. There are so many question marks over where he will slot and how well to give writers of opinion pieces months of material, in turn building up hype and intrigue into where he will fit in and how well he will do. Sam Burgess is a relatively big name doing something many would consider idiotic which leads to more questions than answers. His intent on playing in the national squad should ensure all Bath games get in depth coverage with pundits rating his viability or un-suitability for a national spot. And the presence of a prodigal son in RU may be enough to lead a few league pundits to watching a couple games. The move was designed for the sole purpose of grabbing attention and this should lead to the Premiership getting bumper coverage heading into the RWC. More coverage and hype should lead to more eyeballs tuning in on tv and more bums in seats and the RFU are probably hoping that the decline eases and it dosen't have to sink as much money and resources into the Premiership. The move not only generates excitement for the premiership but also creates a continuous stream of press regarding the world cup throughout the year which no import would be able to provide. The whole focus of Sam's move is based around whether he is good enough to get a WC spot in a year and as he slowly adapts this question will be asked with greater frequency.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Perhaps it would have been better to say the occasional athlete,not any athlete.Else there would have been a decent flow one way. I dare say the Slaters,Inglises,Johns,Johnsons,Thurstons,Lockyer have had bigger offers from Japan,France ,the now nearly broke ARU,and English ru clubs. Folau would not have defected if Schubert had been quicker off the mark,and Central Funding or 3rd party deals had moved swifter. With all the money now rolling in to the NRL,eg the 9s made $1m for the NRL alone,they will be in a better position to counter offers elsewhere(with nearl $51m in the Bank already).And that includes the likes Tomkins. The code is currently looking at ways to ensure the Folaus stay in the code,and in fact he stated he would not rule out coming back. Maybe because the 9s event is being chased by wealthy business in Dubai ,to stage it there. You "heard from a bloke,that stood next to a bloke who knew a bloke at RL Central"No please tell me I did not read that. Well tell the bloke who knew the bloke at RL central to tell the bloke sitting next door to the bloke scratching himself,the Cap auditor is no longer there.Doyle is looking after that aspect,and will be adopting a less rigid approach to enure stars stay in the code. NB this is 2014,a cashed up code run by business people with nouse,unlike the amateurs at times, that ran the show on and off for decades.In fact I would be more concerned about counter poaching down the line.
TREX
Guest
http://www.premiershiprugby.com/news/1520.php#.Uwcaa_mSyjI The English premiership football is run at a loss and even a few years ago in the NRL only two or three clubs were making a profit. What is your point? Sam Burgess isn't a house hold name in rugby or in the UK and the move is only because the league guys (Ford & Farrell) approach him. If Bath wanted a name for seats in the stands they could easily have gone for an All Black, Springbok or a Wallaby player. Only two clubs – the Brisbane Broncos and North Queensland Cowboys – can claim to be financially self-sufficient from footballing revenues – sponsorship, merchandise, gate receipts and the NRL grant. The other 14 clubs all require regular cash injections from between $1 million and $5 million from supporting leagues clubs or generous backers just to break even. This is not sustainable in the long run. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/moneyball-how-is-your-club-placed-20130830-2swhv.html#ixzz2twmgFtKo Like I said before the English clubs salary caps is prop up from all competitions the clubs are involved in England, UK and Europe. The TV ratings from European games and some crowd numbers is much bigger than Aviva premiership. There is more games and more income for the clubs and top it off the RFU also offer the clubs money for having academies and players in the England team and there is also bonus for clubs when they do well in Europe. The English rugby clubs will do well out of the European tv deals when its done and the new tv deal for the Aviva Premiership will also be much bigger than the Superleague.
clipper
Guest
and 2,000 is great for the Broncos in London!
Rodney
Roar Pro
Well, attendances are down according to the league's own published table. Check it for yourself if you really need to (http://www.premiershiprugby.com/stats/attendance.php?includeref=18099&season=2011#18099). If you add up the totals on their own table you may notice they don't add up at all to the press release. According to their own tables the averages have been decreasing, with this press release being the anomaly. Admittedly the decrease was pretty small between 2010-11 and 2011-12 (24 person per games including the whole season and finals, 39 if just the regular season is counted) but the trend still continued. The english club scene is run at a loss (Quote from Sarceans owner Nigel Wray "The Premiership loses a lot of money every year. I'm guessing £20m-£30m"-2014), its pretty clear and the RFU has tried several initiatives to try and ease this. The move to only selecting locally based players for national squads was obviously made to ensure the strength of local clubs. Now this burgess move has given the RFU an opportunity to give its domestic league some more press by coming out that Sam will only be selected if he plays well enough at Bath. The point of bringing up Tv rights and the sort was to say the Premiership isn't making enough money to feasibly be making a profit with the sort of Salary cap the league has as well as considering what sort of attendances and how many games it has. I don't know how much the whole Aviva + Cups goes for and the NRL is bloated by the ANZAC test, SOO and 4 nations it chucked in there, but I don't think with the NRL extras taken out and the Aviva goodies added in that the equation would balance out or sway toward the Aviva (as it would need to for the Aviva league to be breaking even).
TREX
Guest
Not long ago 8000 and 5000 wasn't so bad in the Winfield Cup and the English RL club comp.
TREX
Guest
londonleaguuie, I know your the same person on TRL forum where the majority of English rugby league fans constantly refer to rugby union as one of major sport in England and rugby league as a regional minority sport. If having rugby union and cricket as a major sports along with football (who is king) upset you, then so be it. Wales gets small crowds in rugby union as well but is it a major sport in Wales or not? Will let you answer that one. http://www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php/topic/248102-rugby-league-player-loss-merged-threads/ We aren't playing the poor cousin role, we ARE the poor cousin. Some of the reasons we are a poor sport: >we complain if the price of tickets is anything less than bargain basement >Rl fans find any excuse not to go to games >we never massively get behind international games simply because we can't beat the Aussies >there is uproar whenever something new is tried (Crusaders, Paris, London - internationals in Cardiff etc) It's all well and good fans wanting us to scrap the salary cap, but who is going to pay for it, because there will be uproar if the tickets go up from £20 to £25! Koukash may pay in the short term, but what if he gets bored? You can't then implement it again at that point. Koukash may love the game, but then so have plenty of other rich people who have then either moved on to something else or had financial hardship themselves. A reason we lose a lot of players to other sports is that we have some fantastic athletes and they are in demand from others. We are as rich as we are, we keep trying to get more, to grow, that is all we can do. You can't ignore the fact that we don't have enough coming in to spend millions on wages.
TREX
Guest
Typical rugby league fan, you talked down the Aviva premiership and said crowds attendance were down since 2009 and then was told it wasn't the case now all of a sudden he compares the Aviva Preimersip to the NRL. Typical The NRL TV rights is everything from club to SOO and internationals. Did you add up the whole TV rights for England from Six Nations, Heineken Cuo, Amlin Cup, Aviva Premiership, Aglo-Welsh Cup, Autumn Internationals and Soutern Hemisphere Tours? It might not be up there with the NRL but its twice as much as 42mils pounds per year.
TREX
Guest
Still waiting on those Reds juniors membership links or is this one of those post and disappear acts you guys are known for on here. Calling others liars when in fact your the biggest one on here is silly. Put up or shut up. Now show us evidence that the Reds use juniors registrations as part of their membership package. Common now it shouldn't be hard to find since you made the allegations.
gijoe
Guest
Dont drag london leaguie into it,your by your lonesome Now go to bed.
gijoe
Guest
A lonely teacher....oh god, I'm out you win goodnight mate.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
'you're lonely'...no, can't stand little kids beginning life with bad grammar. It's the teacher in me. We'll work on adding a new sentence to your repertoire :)
gijoe
Guest
I've got it, your lonely aren't you mate. Thats cool I'll keep you company.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
Gee you're hilarious. Do you always accuse people of ranting or are you hiding the fact you can't string more than 1 or two sentences together? I'd say ask your mum but somehow I think you have had a questionable upbringing and a doctor would be more appropriate. Now go ask your big brother to reply and at least try to hide the fact you're under 5.
gijoe
Guest
Lies, medication..sounds like someone. obviously you don't know how to make a cuppa. Ask your mum.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
I suggest you take your medication because there are enough here seeing the troll that you are and your plain out lies. And don't accuse me behind your keyboard when I have never gone trolling on union threads little something.
gijoe
Guest
Im not the 1 going through the archives to the tune of 70 80 years ago,trying dish dirt on rival codes. even a staunch leaguie like Gl are seeing through your madman rants. Mate I suggest you have cuppa .spend time with the fams..let it go.
Muzz
Guest
Yep - Keep up the good work Cathar.You forgot to mention the population of Italy is 60 mill.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
Well if I'm five you must be 3. you are a one sad little something.