The growth - not death - of Rugby in Australia

[TOCC]

Talking to my brother, he said there was 10 teams in the U6's....That's purely at Easts Rugby! He said finding the right team your kids supposed to be playing in was crazy..

 

[#1 Tah]

The refereeing clan grew as well - the course I went to in March was chockers, and there was competition for games within the final few weeks - again, good problems to have.

No final email would be right without some statistics. Across the year between Sydney Juniors and the schools we service, 337 different referees controlled 4440 games of rugby, between Under 8 to Open age football. If you feel tired, you should.

 

[p.Tah]

Article highlighting 7s is helping to promote rugby. Look at the schools in this competition, many of them are Rugby League schools.

"The High Performance staff were also on the lookout for talented youngsters to join the Australian Rugby Union’s Pathway to Gold Program, a national youth talent development and selection program from grassroots through to high performance Rugby.

Now officially in its first four-year Olympic cycle, Rugby Sevens offers a huge range of opportunities to men and women of all ages from the grassroots to the elite competition.

Detailed below is the list of schools that participated at last Friday’s NSW Rugby Sevens State Secondary Schools finals and the results:

Farrer Memorial Agriculture High School - North West Regional Qualifier
Picnic Point High - West Sydney Qualifier
St Edwards College, Gosford - Central Coast Regional Qualifier
Hills Sports High School, Seven Hills - Sports High Qualifier
Patricians Brothers, Blacktown - Metro Catholic Qualifier
St Gregorys College, Campbelltown - Metro Qualifier
Georges River College, Oatley - Metro East Qualifier
St Stanislus College, Bathurst - Western Region Qualifier
Westfields Sports High, Fairfield - Sports High Qualifier
The Scots College, Bellevue Hill - Investec 7s Qualifier
St Francis Xaviers, Hamilton - Hunter Regional Qualifier
Prairiewood High School, Prairiewood - West Sydney Qualifier
Marist Brothers, Eastwood - Metro Catholic Qualifier
Kiama High, Kiama - Illawarra Regional Qualifier"

http://www.rugby.com.au/sevens/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1754/ArticleID/7704/Default.aspx

 

[TOCC]

Yes its good to see rugby getting there foot in the door at some of those league schools..

People can criticise 7's all they like, but its a better 'vehicle' to sell the product of rugby to non-rugby players and fans, i highly doubt that those school would have participated in the XV's rugby equivalent.

 

[Badger]

7's is an excellent way to introduce rugby to newcomers. Just like T20 and one dayers are for the longer forms of cricket.

Great to hear that the ARU is doing this.

 

[p.Tah]

From the ARU AGM:

Delegates were also briefed on the 2012 participation figures, which for the first time in the game’s history broke the 300,000 player mark.

There were 323,115 players throughout Australia in 2012, an increase of 61,678 (23.6%) on 2011 numbers, 55% on 2010 playing numbers and 68% growth when compared to 2009.

The strength of the game in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and the ACT continued to thrive with Junior and Senior numbers recording growth across the five regions.

It was the third consecutive year NSW and Victorian Junior numbers had increased and the fourth year in a row Senior playing numbers had increased in Victoria. Junior numbers also increased in Queensland.

After entering its first official four year Olympic cycle, Rugby Sevens enjoyed a huge boost to playing numbers in 2012.

A total of 39,003 people were engaged with Sevens in 2012, with the game’s popularity growing in Queensland, NSW, South Australia, the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia.

Other key areas of participation included:

•NSW Juniors up 3.3% to 21,135 (Record)
•NSW Seniors up 3.8% to 19,550 (Record)
•NSW overall playing numbers up 12.4% to 114,350 (Record)
•QLD Juniors up 9.2% to 16,593 (Record)
•QLD overall playing numbers up 49.8% to 113,932 (Record)
•Victorian Juniors up 11.7% to 1,969 (Record)
•Victorian Overall playing numbers up 70.8% to 17,994 (Record)
•ACT Seniors up 3.1% to 3,048 (Record)
•ACT Juniors up 5.3% to 4,495
•ACT overall playing numbers up 11.2% to 27,399 (Record)
•Western Australia Seniors up 10.4% to 3,614 (Record)
•Western Australia Juniors up 12.9% to 4,183 (Record)
•National Rugby Sevens playing numbers up 150.4% to 39,003 (Record)
•Irregular Schools playing numbers up 50.3% to 166,913 (Record)

From a financial perspective the ARU posted a deficit:

A net deficit of $8.3 million was recorded for the year, a $2.3m improvement on the previous year.

Total revenues were $96.6m, up $21.0m from 2011.

However, gross expenditure also increased to $100.3m, up $17.2m from 2011.

Mr Hawker said: “while revenues were higher than the previous year, so was expenditure, which was primarily due to our continued investment in the game.

“Our bottom line was also negatively impacted by $7.5m due to the higher Australian Dollar.

The Lions Series couldn't come at a better time.

Whilst the financial result needs to be better, it's not all doom and gloom in the Australian Rugby World

http://www.rugby.com.au/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1699/ArticleID/8923/Default.aspx

 

[Set piece magic]

IT's about time Australian Rugby stopped getting the hard end of the stick, the poor media coverage etc. Bring on the Lions series so we can show these 'indigenous' codes what we are made of

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

From the ARU AGM:



From a financial perspective the ARU posted a deficit:


The Lions Series couldn't come at a better time.

Whilst the financial result needs to be better, it's not all doom and gloom in the Australian Rugby World

http://www.rugby.com.au/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1699/ArticleID/8923/Default.aspx

Those figures look good but something we need to look at is strategies to turn those irregular numbers into active participation across both clubs and school's.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

The rate of growth in NSW has to be of concern. 3% growth in the NSW juniors is almost margin of error numbers, given how much the numbers have fluctuated over the years.

If WA keep up their growth, then using Brazil Rugby mathmatical logic, we will see WA regularly beating NSW in about 20 years time.

 

[Crashy]

My subbies club has too many players. This is deadset a problem we havent had in many any years - especially colts. Saying that, it could be Gordon's recent woes that have led us to 40 registered colts. We'll see how the ski season treats us.....

 

[USARugger]

Dubious figures and their interpretation aside (read the ARU Report thread if you want to see my wall of words on the subject) it is great that the number of kids being exposed to Rugby Union has grown so much in the past few years. While I do think 7s is a poor substitute for growing up playing 15s it absolutely is a fantastic 'pathway' for new and late-blooming players to transition to 15s.

This is where the fork in the road is and as the 7s program is still really in it's infancy the next few years will tell which direction we go in. One thing I would be wary of is the 7s game using the Olympics to separate itself from 15s. This cannot be allowed to happen. Olympic or not, 7s must still be regarded as the red-headed stepbrother to 15s if it to be considered a pathway for 15s. If we can avoid falling into the trap of 7s supremacy it really can be a fantastic pathway to elite 15s representation.

Although it will never outweigh out-and-out 15s developmental cycles it is very good for unearthing some of the late-bloomers and for accustoming fringe 15s players to the speed of international play. New Zealand does this far, far better than anyone else right now.

If we do fall prey to the Olympic pull it could potentially lead to an overemphasis on 7s specialization which could be detrimental to athletes in terms of transferring over to the 15s game. Let 7s grow, but keep it on a short leash.