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Riding on the coattails of a magnificent sevens gold-medal victory in Rio, Australian rugby has been presented a wonderful story and opportunity.
Despite the many warranted pieces written regarding the broken state of the game and its administration, the Australian women’s sevens team have achieved what many Australian rugby fans have for so long been pining – a tournament victory.
An Aussie team combining a powerful, incisive running game, with crisp accurate passing, coupled with some superb first-half tackling. Against New Zealand. In a final. For an Olympic Gold medal.
Refereed by a Spaniard no less!
In watching the tournament to date, what has stood out is that irrespective which nation was playing, this is a return to what rugby is all about – the running game at its finest.
Support play is rewarded, players enjoy taking the game on, and having sound fundamentals in tackling and ruck play are still rewarded. The level of fitness (particularly on defence) is incredible.
The simple joys of not having games bogged down in reviews, the natural focus on five-pointers, and immediate yellow cards for professional fouls makes the game flow at a crazy pace – none of this ridiculous, inconsistent whistling time-off and dishing out warnings for flagrant penalties that impede attacking play.
What is even better is that the girls had a chance to shine and showcased a wonderful form of rugby to a global audience.
While there are huge benefits for the global game by association with the Olympics, Australian rugby’s greatest challenge now is how to maximise the opportunity this victory brings for a game that is at the cross-roads Down Under.
The women’s team have laid a significant foundation stone for the ARU in pursuit of the 2016-2020 Australian Rugby Strategic Plan.
The high-level goals of “making rugby a game for all”, and “igniting passion for the game” are no better demonstrated in the sevens game. This is a growing phenomenon at the global level, and too good an opportunity to be missed.
The game promotes fantastic elements of running, skills, teamwork and power – and still rewards those with good rugby technique. It is a game for men, women, boys and girls alike.
It great to watch on television, awesome to play, and incredible to watch live – the sevens tourney held in Sydney in February this year saw 74,000 attend over two days.
In the context of live attendance, a wonderful atmosphere is created without the need for ‘doof-doof’ music, nor dime-a-dozen ground announcers spruiking useless cross-promotional advertising or (even worse) their own form of match analysis.
Further, the rotating format of matches see exposure to many players and diverse skills in the one day.
While many comparisons will (and should) be made to the success of T20 in cricket, the ARU’s challenge is how to schedule sevens as a central part of our game.
Sevens is a global product, and difficult to calibrate back to cricket’s domestic short-form success, where a game will conclude in three hours. A sevens tournament is played over a weekend, and such is the physical toll on players that you cannot simply churn a tournament over 15-22 rounds of a season, nor would there be funding or appetite to do so.
The solution? A four-round national sevens league, including the following elements:
• Played between states and territories for both sexes
• League points accumulated over the four rounds
• Capitals or major regional cities could host a tournament every second year
• Free-to-air market potential for television
• Incentive to have two international players per team
In terms of timing, there is potential opportunity to schedule this four-round tourney in October, which does not clash with the international sevens schedule, and could lead into potential selection opportunities and incentives on the international circuits held bewteen December and May.
Such a tournament would promote the game nationally, take a growing form of the game to new markets, and naturally build a development pathway to the format’s elite level.
As a final comment, my six and four-year-old daughters watched the whole game with me on Tuesday, transfixed (in context, a Saturday or Sunday afternoon usually sees any ambition to watch footy scuttled by Anna or Elsa, or any other godforsaken Disney princess).
What clearly stood out to them was that girls are awesome – they can run fast, score lots of points, and most importantly look like they are having a lot of fun while doing it.
Congratulations again on a wonderful performance from Australia’s new rugby heroes and ambassadors, and good luck to the men’s team over the ensuing days.
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.