The future of rugby in Australia has been laid out for all to see with the announcement of the Australian Rugby Strategic Plan for 2016- 2020. The plan set out by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) contains a number of goals and targets with a view to expanding the sport. Despite twice being crowned Rugby World Cup Champions in 1991 and 1999 as well as finalists in 2003 and at the most recent tournament in 2015, rugby in Australia can still be viewed as a relatively minority sport. The Strategic Plan aims to address this imbalance between high level performance success and participation levels.
The ARU has identified four key areas in which rugby needs to improve its performance in order to reach its goals.
1. Make Rugby a game for all – Our Community
2. Ignite Australia’s passion for the game – Our Fans
3. Build sustainable success in the professional game – Our Elite Teams
4. Create excellence in how the game is run – Our Administration
The plan is openly ambitious and with good right as well as that is precisely what is needed for rugby in Australia. In a sport heavy environment rugby has a great deal of competition from large sports including AFL, league, cricket and soccer as well as a vast number of individual sports and pursuits like swimming and surfing. It is, therefore, imperative for rugby to look on a large scale and aim higher than may well be possible to achieve. Grassroots rugby must thrive if the elite are to continue to prosper and that is a large focus of the new Strategic Plan.
Half of the above key areas focus on the greater community surrounding rugby in Australia who are both participants and customers of the ARU. As such that is how they have been addressed, with this Strategic Plan being announced following a survey of over 8,300 fans as well as sponsors and Unions from around the country. By including the grassroots supporters in the process the ARU has cannily brought the rugby community even closer together. The success of this Plan, however, will lay heavily on the shoulders of the ARU and its administration no matter where the supporting data came from.
In the build up to the announcement of the new Strategic Plan much was made of the fact that 7,000 club players left rugby in 2015. This figure in based on XV’s club rugby in Australia and has been conveniently polished over with the announcement of growth in other sectors of the sport with a resurgence in Sevens, Viva7’s (touch) and women’s rugby. Whilst the growth of those three sectors is fantastic for rugby it is worrying that the heart of the sport is at threat in Australia. The reasons for this drop off will be wide and varied although a specific rugby focused assessment has been investigated with drop offs from colts to seniors. It is great that overall there was an increase of 2.7% in participation as this new Plan looks to cement that success even further with a target of 365,000 by 2020 across all formats, XV’s, Sevens and Viva7’s.
For all the figures, goal setting and posturing rugby participation is increasingly under threat from the greater worry surrounding head injuries in the sport. Bad press around the number and extent of concussion in the sport may well have an effect on some parents not wanting their children to get involved. The ARU alongside World Rugby and the Unions around the world have looked to combat this issue and now concussion guidelines are now built into the introductory Smart Rugby programme with aim of making the game safer. With regards to the new Strategic Plan, it would have been positive to see a drive to increase numbers of those partaking in Smart Rugby. Not just potential coaches and referees but indeed players themselves so that awareness of the dangers and how to rectify the problems are widely known. This precedent set on safety may well have reassured many parents even more that rugby in Australia is looking to tackle the dangers of concussion.
It is easy to dissect the ARU’s Strategic Plan and criticise, however, negativity is not the way to develop a sport. Yes some of the goals are unrealistic. Yes some sections of the community will have been overlooked but for rugby in Australia to grow it needs everyone from the pitches to boardrooms to come together to promote a sport that should be sitting high on the Australian consciousness with pride. A sport built around respect and sportsmanship filled with graceful beauty and pitched physical battles must be able to appeal to the Australian sports fan.
“Main Photo”
