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So, Super Rugby ventured into Singapore for the first time on Saturday, and what a night it was. A great game and a great atmosphere.
It was the first time we’ve taken the kids (six and four) to a live match, and I thought it worth reflecting a bit on the whole game-day experience. It all started off very badly for me when my daughter’s friend’s fifth birthday party ran over.
My tightly packed schedule was at risk. Beer and snack service is notoriously slow at the Singapore stadium, so you’ve got to get in early to get stocked up before kick-off – and we were a family of four keen for a couple of cold ones and a hot-dog.
Luckily disaster was averted when traffic treated us kindly enough to get there in time to get snacked-up and seated in time for kick-off.
The atmosphere was fantastic, even with a pretty small crowd of just over 8,000. Singapore stadium is a great venue, aside from the beer queues – and I’ll leave judgment on the playing surface.
It’s a unique venue with a closed roof, but the western end of the stadium is open to the elements, so we were treated to a beautiful view of sunset over the city at kick-off. While not quite the Millennium Stadium, with the roof closed even a relatively small crowd can still make a hell of a noise. And a hell of a noise we made.
The crowd was a great mix of expats (I guess 70%) and locals (30%), and we sat next to a group of young Singaporeans, behind two Indian families and in front of an elderly Malay couple.
Then there was the old Welsh guy a few rows down giving out some “Oggy, Oggy, Oggy” chants to rev the crowd up. Multi-cultural Singapore at its finest, and I can’t imagine a more diverse crowd has ever watched a Super Rugby match.
There were large groups of rugby club-mates, leading song choruses and chants and cheers. One group of 30-or-so were all decked out with matching Pat Cash / Karate Kid-style bandanas. I think they were going for the Samurai look, but it looked more Kamikaze to me (which was probably more appropriate given the amount they were drinking). And therein is probably my biggest gripe. Not the big groups of club boys, who are always great value at matches, but the large absence of the silent majority.
Generally speaking, most of the folks there were either Super Rugby (i.e. Japanese/Antipodean/Saffer) fans and/or rugby club members. But what about the rest of the rugby fraternity? Outside of that small minority of rugby fans lies a massive, un-tapped rugby supporter base here in Singapore, who were largely unaware of the match.
Let’s face it, most rugby fans aren’t club members, and there’s a global cast of thousands upon thousands of rugby fans here that would love to watch some high glass live rugby. Ads for the upcoming Sevens are everywhere – is this the best year ever for rugby in Singapore? – but I can’t recall seeing or hearing a word locally about the Sunwolves matches.
I’m not normally one for stadium merchandising, but thought it was a real shame there wasn’t any at the ground (or if there was, it was kept well hidden). For once I would definitely have invested in the ‘local’ team and snapped up a couple of Sunwolves tees for the kids, especially as they surely must be able to do some pretty cool designs with that wolf logo.
If the intention is to continue building this presence in Singapore for a number of years to come, then small things like that really matter. With a better marketing approach locally they could really start to not just pull in the crowds, but really build the brand here in Singapore.
As for the game, how much fun are the Sunwolves to watch? Full of adventure, play fast, direct and creative rugby. Their defensive structures seemed to let them down though, with a couple of fatal gaps in their defensive line letting Cheetah’s runners through un-touched for at least two of their tries.
That, and their already impressive attack, will only improve with more time together, and I imagine that if they’d had a decent pre-season together they’d have walked this game. On this form I fully expect them to be having a fair crack at finals rugby within a season or two, and hope they’re still paying here in Singapore to support them through it.
I think the entire crowd was backing the Sunwolves. There can’t have been more than two or three Cheetahs fans. It took a while for everyone to warm up, but by the end everyone was on their feet, stamping and howling at the Sunwolves as they pushed for the win in the last minute or so.
So much more fun than shouting or cheering, it all got quite primal for a minute or two there! What a great way to end the game, and a real shame we couldn’t get the points that would have given us a well deserved win.
It was a great evening all round for the family, and we all had our moments? For my daughter (4) it was being allowed to stand on her chair and howl like a wolf, with thousands of others.
My son loved the big hits, and there was one in particular when a beefy Cheetah nailed the Sunwolves scrummy – “whoa, Daddy, it’s like a pig tackling a chicken!” I haven’t seen him laugh that much since the bathroom exploded in the Paddington movie.
My wife’s favourite moment was probably getting served after queuing 40 minutes for round two of beers and hot-dogs at half time (and half the second half). I had two favourites. 1) Pisi’s cross-field kick for their second try, and 2) my kids asking when were coming again for the next match – after years of gentle persuasion I think they’ve finally been bitten by the bug!
So to wrap up, I’ve probably whinged my way through this write-up a whole lot more than I intended to, but that’s because I see massive potential to build some solid support for the Sunwolves here in Singapore, and nowhere near enough being done to maximise on it.
There’s a big, appreciative rugby audience here in Singapore, willing to throw their allegiance behind a local Super team and watch some high-class games in this sport we love.
They’ve just got to do more to get people to the games. As a long-term resident of this fantastic little country, I’d love to be going to a packed-out stadium for years to come, to support our local team playing high-class rugby against some of the best clubs in the world.
Is that selfish? Absolutely! Is that too much to ask? I hope not.
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.