Rugby: The International Profile

Stephen Jones, the Sunday Times rugby union correspondent, recently insisted,” The international scene is what sets rugby union apart from all other codes of football. Its international profile dwarfs utterly that of, say, Australian Rules, Gaelic Football and Rugby league…….when the 2013 Six Nations Championship opens in Cardiff, London, and Rome  there are torrents of other international matches around the world. ”

How right he is. And how accurate is his observation of the differences in the impact made, both spectator and media wise, by international competition whatever the passions aroused and the attendances attracted at club matches.

The huge crowds and the cash records from sponsorship and TV rights currently being generated Down Under for the National Rugby League club and state programme in Australia and New Zealand has, ironically, led to an inward looking attitude in the Southern Hemisphere, much to the detriment of international rugby league. At a time when today the likes of Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Norway, Jamaica, Lebanon, America, Canada, the Pacific Islands and many more countries worldwide are holding their own 13 a side national club leagues and competing at their own international levels.

Shortly before the birth of Super League, when attendances of over 73,000 were still being posted for international rugby league at Wembley Stadium and crowds of  50,000 plus were welcomed to Old Trafford for Test Match rugby, rugby league’s Ellery Hanley, Martin Offiah, Shaun Edwards and company were household names nationally in the media. Super League might have been watched by record crowds in season 2012 and the rugby union’s Premiership might have aroused great interest in Leicester, Bath, Gloucester and elsewhere but it is international competition which creates a national interest and a profile for a sport.

England RU’s success on the pitch over the next six weeks will, to a considerable extent, determine the largesse and range of their sponsorship portfolio. Another 70,000 plus crowd and excellent TV and Radio viewing and listening figures at the Super League’s Grand Final will never have the same outcome.

So in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, throw England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales into the mix with Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, France, the USA, Samoa, Italy, Tonga, and the Cook Islands, and promote serious, meaningful international competition. For, as the RU’s Six Nations Championship proves, only truly competitive international events can today provide a sport with the media, marketing, and financial opportunities to command a national audience.   

Ray French (January 2013)