The Super Rugby Pacific 2024 draw is announced. The competition kicks off on Friday 23 February, 2024 with Rebels v Brumbies in Melbourne, Force v Hurricanes in Perth and on 24 February with Waratahs in Brisbane, Blues v Drua, somewhere and there are some other lesser games over the weekend.
Iain Payten in Wednesday’s SMH reports that Carter Gordon is still in contact with Quade Cooper.
“He sent me a really nice message when the squad come out and said he is here for me and is going to continue to help me as much as he can. So that just shows the person he is and how good a bloke he is.”
Quade must have been surprised and upset. It says something for his growth over the years to have this maturity and consideration.
Second Chance
Rugby Pass reports that recalled Irish wing Keith Earls is set for his 100th game on the weekend and potentially his fourth World Cup. Well done that man.
Scotland World Cup Squad
Scotland have announced their squad for 2023 RWC:
Forwards
Ewan Ashman, James Bhatti, Dave Cherry, Luke Crosbie, Scott Cummings, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Richie Gray, WP Nel, Jamiee Ritchie (c), Pierre Schoeman, Javan Sebastian, Sam Skinner, Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Hamish Watson.
Backs
Darcy Graham, Brian Kinghorn, Chris Harris, Ben Healy, George Horne, Hew Jones, All Price, Cameron Redpath, Finn Russell, Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan Van Der Merwe, Ben White.
Shute Shield is now a recognised part of the Scottish development pathway with Jack Dempsey making his second RWC.
Judiciary Stands Firm
Rugby Pass also reports that Tonga’s George Moala, appeared before the judicial committee for a tip tackle in the Tonga v Canada match that warranted a red card. The committee decided the offence warranted a mid-range sanction (ten matches) mitigated to five. Good to see the judiciary process follows a consistent line with the tier 1 and 2 nations – “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.
World Cup Preparation
Not long now. Games coming up this week for RWC participants:
Image available via Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) Creative Commons — Attribution 2.0 Generic — CC BY 2.0
This was going to be a history of rugby crowds, so let’s start there.
The biggest crowd in rugby is well known to be 109,874 at the Sydney Olympic Stadium Bledisloe on 15/7/2000. Since the Olympic stadium was reduced in size, Sydney is unlikely to match this unless the taxpayers decide hospitals are no longer that important. The others in the top ten are:
Surprisingly Romania features in two of the highest attended matches.
Other domestic crowd records (according to Aus Stadiums) (using the current stadium name) are:
How does this compare with other sports?
AFL
Locally the AFL is clearly ahead with grand finals typically about 100,000 and nine regular season games so far exceeding 80,000. However, not all AFL games are well attended. These are the lowest this year:
NRL
Surprisingly none of league’s highest crowds feature State of Origin. NRL’s current claim to support is based more on viewing audiences than match attendances. The largest recent crowds are:
Soccer
The highest attendances are below. Six of the eight smallest crowds are this year and are below 2,500:
Super Rugby
The average Super Rugby crowd in 2023 was 11,403 and the list isn’t impressive:
It’s been a while since we posted these figures:
Internationally
Excluding golf and motor sports which tend to run over long periods and not in stadiums, soccer is well ahead at most levels. It’s largest crowd was 199,854 in 1950 at Brazil v Uruguay.
In American Football’s biggest crowd on 10/9/2016 130,045 people saw University of Tennessee Volunteers defeat Virginia Tech Hokies at the Bristol Moto Speedway. The biggest Super Bowl crowd was 103,985 at Rose Bowl in California in 1980 which is smaller than the two biggest Wallabies’ crowds.
The biggest crowds at domestic sporting competitions are:
*121,696 for the 1970 VFL Grand Final between Carlton and Collingwood **Bandy ? It’s like Ice Hockey with a bigger field.
At two ends of the spectrum are cornhole and kabaddi. American Cornhole actually is a sport. Participants throw a small bag of corn across a room attempting to hit a board and slide it down a hole. Crowds are small but it’s broadcast. A few hundred attend the professional American Cornhole League, most probably competitors. Only in America? Well, the ACL has an event in Tweed Heads from 8-10 December if you want to chance your arm.
Kabaddi is a contact sport with a curious mixture of touch and tackle. Not well known here, it was introduced at the 1951 Asian Games. It has an ancient history, several local variations and was standardised as a competitive sport in the 1920s. A Pro Kabaddi League was established in 2014 and the sport took off, with the first match seen by 98.6 million viewers, and over 430 million across the season. Several thousand attend live and it is the second most popular sport in India behind cricket.
Why talk about these sports on a rugby site? Because we’ve only got four years. The Lions tour in two, followed by RWC 2027 and Rugby Australia has bet the game’s future on the next four years. In looking at various crowd figures it is striking how quickly popularity can rise and just as soon dissipate.
The rapid public success of the Matildas women’s soccer team in their current world cup is astounding. On the back of a nil-all draw quarter final success, politicians are debating a possible public holiday. Move over Don Bradman, Sam Kerr is being touted as Australia’s best ever sportsperson. Even the Boomers, a realistic medal chance at the upcoming FIBA World Cup, rescheduled yesterday’s international against Brazil, so they could watch the Matildas. The Force trained in yellow on Wednesday to show support for the Matildas. This astronomic rise is more than the results obtained, which to date have been good.
Kabaddi’s PKL grew rapidly due to an underlying appeal as game from childhood and significant financial sponsorship. Rugby’s 2003 RWC success was built not just on a decade of competitive results but also on the momentum flowing from the 2000 Olympics. The Matildas current rise seems built partly on the matches being broadcast at a convenient time but more on a zeitgeist of it being the time for women’s sport. Does anyone know the name of someone in the men’s soccer team? The Matildas results are a seed that has been sown in extremely fertile ground and watered with a good PR machine. Like GeorgiaSatellite’s good idea for a touring business often external factors determine success.
With only four years of opportunity RA needs to do as much as it can to build for success but more critically be ready for an agile response to the unanticipated. The biggest risk to the game’s future is if RWC 2027 turns out to be a damp squib.
On that happy note – have a good one.
