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Rugby Union

"...it tells you about the state of rugby union's psychology....They're not seeing the world as it is, they're seeing it how they would like it to be." John O'Neill - Dec 16, 2006

...There's no doubt that right now league is a better game (than union)..." Former NZRU boss David Rutherford - 26 Aug, 2007

It has been said that rugby league is a gentleman's game played by thugs and rugby union is a thug's game played by gentlemen. Unlike union, league doesn't have the mess of players that allows for dirty play such as eye gouging, biting ears, grabbing testicles or stomping on hands. Aside from the odd finger in the date, rugby league has generally been free of the dirty play seen in union.

Considering the nature of rugby union, it is a little unusual that it has managed to maintain a gentleman's image for more than a century and a half. This unusual outcome is best explained by union's history as an amateur sport. As an amatuer sport, union attracted well-educated players that didn't need to rely upon the sport for their income. Today, professionalism is slowly resulting in its boganisation.

Rugby union history in Australia

The first rugby club formed in Australia was the Sydney University Club in 1864. In 1874 a Sydney metropolitan competition was established with the new league being administered from Twickenham, England. The new league suffered a blow in 1877 when the powerful 'Waratah' Rugby Club invited Carlton (an Aussie rules club) to play two matches, one each under union and Australian rules. For many Sydney football fans, union was slow and unattractive and the Waratah club hoped to make the point in a direct comparison with the Australian game.

A week later over 100 footballers formed the New South Wales Football Association (NSWFA) to play the Australian game. For the next three decades, the two codes battled for the hearts and minds of Sydney siders. Union used its influence in the corridors of power to have Australian football banned from Sydney's enclosed grounds. As a consequence, Australian football was unable to raise money to pay players or promote the code.

As an amateur sport, union would have eventually lost to Australian football had rugby league not arrived in 1908 to act as a circuit breaker. The drift of union players to Australian football became a drift to rugby league. Union became confined to the private schools, which were attracted by its English image and well-mannered players that played for love instead of money.

Despite losing the fight against both Australian football and rugby league, as an amateur sport, rugby union was immune from destruction. Union players were lawyers, doctors and accountants who could make more money in their professions than they ever could if the defected to league. For them, the joy of union was to be able to travel the world and represent their country. For union, it didn't matter that it didn't have crowds because they didn't have huge overheads to maintain.

In the 1980s, rugby league started going more mainstream by targeting more white-collar supporters. With its market being encroached upon, rugby union responded with moves towards professionalism. In 1987, the first rugby World Cup was held in Sydney. By the early 90s, the code was experiencing such a surge in popularity that it started breaking free of its white-collar following.

With a common market being pursued, tensions between the two rugby codes increased and each started plotting the demise of the other. League offered salary cap incentives to any club buying union players. As the money on offer was more than a white-collar job, union players were far more tempted by league money than their predecessors had been.

When Super League was launched in 1995, rugby union faced destruction. With rugby league paying a fortune to anyone who could pass or tackle, the entire Wallaby and All Black teams threatened to defect. To provide a professional league, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia hastily organised the Super 12 and Tri Nations. A new force in the Australian professional sports market had emerged.

Without the shackles of a popular club competition to weigh them down, all of rugby union's resources were directed towards the success of the Wallabies. Thus Australia, where union ran a distant last in terms of playing numbers, became a powerhouse of world rugby. In under two decades, it won two World Cups, and narrowly missed out on a third.

The success of the Wallabies allowed union to gain a following in Australian markets that had no history of support for the code. Testament to the value of a national team was the 2003 World Cup final  between England and Australia, which attracted a national audience of 4.01million.

As well as making spectacular commercial strides, union also made significant progress at the junior level. Since turning professional in 1996, the number of people playing union in Australia has more than doubled. In 1996, 89,760 people played union in Australia. In 2006, the number was 193,382. With the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Sports Commission estimating that League only has 180,000-190,000 players, union is now more popular from a playing point of view.

Despite its growth, union doesn't seem capable of landing the knockout blow on rugby league in regards to market appeal. Of the 50 top-rating sports programs in Australia in 2005, 12 were AFL, six were league and not one was rugby. Not even the Bledisloe Cup made the list.

One of union's main problems is that it can't offer as many opportunities to players as can league. Australia only has four professional union teams, compared to 16 professional rugby league teams. An up-and-coming union player would be foolish to knock back an offer from a rugby league club for a less-than-likely career in union.

Aside from reducing opportunities for players, the half-season and lack of Australia wide representation also affects spectator appeal. It is difficult for fans to build a tribal following for the code because games are in the middle of the night, and the whole season is finished just when the other football codes are at the height of their season.

As a competition, the Super 14 is quite limited. It is more of a series of glorified exhibition games designed to train players which a chance to represent their national teams. Indicative of that mentality is the banning of foreign players, and New Zealand’s decision to rest its All Black players from the start of the 2007 season that they could be fresh for the world cup. While the success of the national teams is helpful in the promotion of the code, a couple of passionate games a year between countries tend to get drowned out by the week-to-week tribalism found in Australian football and rugby league.

To address some of the liabilities of the Super 14, the Australian Rugby Union launched a national league in 2007. The new league aimed to increase union's exposure in the southern markets, and provide more professional opportunities for up-and-coming rugby union players. It lasted one year.

South Africa's involvement in the Super 14 is another liability that is currently weighing down the code, and will probably be even more of a burden in the future. Due to time zone differences, Super 14 matches involving South African teams can really only be watched by fans in one country. Not only does this reduce their appeal, but it also makes it difficult for fans to get in the habit of following a team. On the other hand, a match between Australian and Japanese teams could be watched by fans in both countries. Arguably, the Australian Rugby Union has put a priority on strong competition for the Wallabies over a successful domestic competition. In the long run, this may prove its priorities are not in order.

Union's crunch year is likely to be 2010 when News Ltd’s five-year $NZ664-million contract with SANZAR expires. Declining television audiences make it seem unlikely that News Ltd would again commit that sort of money again. To make matters worse, neither New Zealand or Australia made the semi-finals of the 2007 World Cup. When asking for money, quarter-finalists simply don't have the same bargaining power as finalists. Admittedly, South Africa won the cup; however, they might find that they can get a better return by playing more tests against northern hemisphere nations in their own time zone.

With less money to play with, SANZAR will either have to do some cost cutting, or redesign the Super 14 to address current liabilities in the format, and so reverse what must be a very worrying trend. If SANZAR can't come up with the money, more Australasian rugby players will head to Europe to make more money, and also play against the best players in the world - players that will no longer be in the Super 14.  

It also remains to be seen how the blue-bloods react once professionalism completes the boganization of rugby. A pointer comes in the writings of ex-rugby player Ben Johnson. As Mr Johnson was in a Beijing bar "savoring the opportunity of watching former teammates of mine advance to the final eight of rugby's quadrennial showpiece", he noticed a compatriot from Australia saying "Where are youse from," in parochial voice as if "he were on the grassed hill of the Sydney Cricket Ground in high summer back in the days when a mouse was still only a furry rodent." Aftering concluding the man had had too much to drink, Johnson decided to "diplomatically upbraid my fellow Australian." The drunk Australian left without a fuss and Johnson decided he had to write about his unsavoury encounter in the China Daily.

Complaining about seeing a drunk a bar when the football was on was about as silly as complaining about seeing a lady wearing a bikini when the beach volleyball was on. To make such a complaint doesn't do much for the promotion of rugby, and it doesn't say much about the character of rugby's traditional supporter base. It also begs the question whether that traditional supporter base would remain if ever rugby's support was normalised.

Strengths:

Weakness:

Out of all the codes, Union has the least number of registered players. This is a significant concern for a code that relies on the success of its national team for media exposure;

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