Ideas for Australian Rugby Union

[Hugh Jarse]

Resurrecting this thread. To remind of the purpose of the thread:

Imagine you are ARU CEO for a day.

Considering the threat GWS, the second Sydney AFL team has on rugby heartlands.

What things would you do to improve rugby in this city and country?

Post your ideas and discussions below.

Summary of some responses:
Cheaper tickets for games. Plain and simple. Juniors under 12 who wear their club rugby jersey get in free.

commission to clubs for selling S15 and Test tickets, every club gets a %age for what tickets they sell through their club.

Have representative curtain raisers like in the old days, instead of boring warm up sessions...

Saturday afternoon S15 & test matches And the odd Sunday arvo match.

For the Tahs free buses from town to the SFS for Friday night matches, there are 350,000 working in the Sydney CBD, make it easier for them to get to the ground.

More financial incentive from the ARU to take some Tahs Games out west. Coincide it with a shute shield local derby between Penrith and Parramatta and make that the curtain raiser. Play on the rivalry between these two areas.

A mass injection of junior development programs into the public school system that is coordinated with all the clubs out that way.

Cheaper playing fees for junior players

Cheaper tickets for test matches with an emphasis on cheaper family tickets.

A bigger presence of high profile players in the promotional sense.

If Sookball can have a reality show about picking up an A league contract, what about one for a Rugby wannabe trying out to win a contract with one of the S15 franchises (academy contract for the younger types or S15 contract for a mature age unsigned talent).

Promote Barefoot Rugby until Under 10's.

Promote Beach Rugby competitions in the summer. Leverage of the Surf Clubs tribalism.

Seven aside Rugby is now an olympic sport. Sevens tournaments are easy to organise teams for and good money spinners for clubs. They are great for preseason 15's fitness. Bring Schools into rugby sevens fold with competitions.

Arrange barefoot sevens competitions for schools in poorer areas where parents may not want to buy boots for little johnny.

More coaching education programmes to be directed to Schools, mainly targetted at public schools.

Wallabies and S15 franchise players to be allocated to schools and hospitals. School visits to be coordinated with coaching skills days. These seem effective in late Jan during Daylight savings periods when there is very little else on.

Absolute effort in the first week back at school for the new starters. New kids (and new mums) at primary school in week 1 read EVERY last newsletter handed out with religious fervour.


You gotta make it easy for "The Australian Families" (Thanks Julia) to get involved in rugby. Doesn't matter if they are shit tickets on the corner or up high at the ends or sides, Mr/Mrs Average and their two kids should not need a mortgage to attend a decent game of rugby. Consider the whole package esp concessionaire prices for food, refreshments and merchandise. Fill the stadiums up.

Influence the media. Get better quality journalists writing articles in the heartland. Give decent writers proper access to the evolving stories and players. Dry up the flow of information to the miserable bastard journalists.

Take a leaf from the WWE and develop some real bad arse dudes that we can all love to hate. If there are none on the current playing roster, then direct one to become one. I am the boss of the ARU and I am your paymaster. You will do what you are told!!!

In terms of Brisbane, I'd love to see a match taken to Skilled Park on the Gold Coast, and a trial match on the Sunny Coast. Sunny Coast is where Rugby has a huge chance in, the success of the Stingrays this year shows that it really needs to be done. Embracing those areas more.

For Sydney, abandon the Homebush idea, and take it to Parra Stadium or CUA Stadium rather than Homebush.

Give Subiaco a Bledisloe, forget the $$$ for a few years. They are sick of the same old teams playing there.

-More rugby shows on tv (free to air) other than the rugby club
-In NSW multiple Shute shield matches televised each weekend, not just 'match of the round'
-Get oz tag in junior schools from a young age. I work at afterschool care a few days a week at a Syd primary school and we always play touch footy. Doing my bit to convert as many of them as i can to play rugby not sookball.
-Plain and simple better and more frequent advertising...
- Getting into the american market would be a huge plus for obvious reasons. 4th Bled should be in Denver...
- Rugby 11 for xbox/ps3 . Rugby 06/08 are awesome games so an updated version should get some new kids playing and loving the game!

Stop paying good money for shit ads. I'd rather watch the Rugby Club's plays of the week than Forged in Union.....

They could look at the fan generated advert - stick a bunch of good clips on the web and throw in some tools that allow users to put them all together into an advert. Let them add voice overs etc, pick a winner and run that as your ad. Kids will love it.

I'd start the season with a 1 day 7's tournament of 10-12 teams featuring our 5 super 15 teams, plus maybe one or two of the NZ sides, invitational pacific island sides, plus a rugby league club or two...the last is crucial and would bring a huge amount of publicity. Other potential teams could be an Australian Indigenous side and the NZ Maori. Sell it to an FTA channel as a separate 'product' and play on a Sunday at the SFS or Suncorp.

Get into the public schools. Teachers are too busy these days, so if ARU can rock up with everything to run a one Rugby comp, they will be very happy - pre-comp clinics, Wallaby/S15 stars, referees, coaches, ovals, comp rules, canteen, T Shirts & posters for participants. Run these clinics early in the year before Junior rugby starts.

Make top level games cheaper for families. You can screw the $ out of the punters in other ways after you have them hooked.

Reclaim the turf. After the game, let the kids get out on the oval to kick a footy, and mingle with the players.

More School Holiday rugby camps. I know that they are glorified babysitting and long day care services, but it is still an engagement with rugby, and a time to encourage kids and parents with the benefits of Heavensgame.

ARU needs affordable merchandise. What can you buy as stocking fillers for kids who are rugby fans? The NRL and AFL and now even soccer have so much to buy - shoe laces, lunch boxes, clocks, wallets, pencil cases and even big kids stuff wheelie bin pictures, car seat covers etc etc ARU needs to play catch up.

Beat the All Blacks.

More TV exposure. FTA or on Fox, I don't really care. NZ ITM is on fox. Do you really want the future kids to know more about NZ provincial players and their teams than our own homegrown stars? Then get our AUstralian games on the TV, FTA or Fox.

And give us QLD'ers Shute Shield on ABC instead of Arthur.

The next time the ARU wants to go and poach a league person, maybe they take a look at the administration. Simple fact is they know how to grow and promote a game. For a CEO, I would take Gallop over O'Neall any day of the week.

 

[Bardon]

One thing Australia could consider is doing a School of Hard Knocks type TV show. In the UK Will Greenwood and Scott Quinell do a program once per year where they go into a deprived area (normally not a rugby stronghold either) and they recruit young unemplyed guys for their team. Most of the players have never played rugby, never worked, dropped out of school early and have been in trouble with the law. They then spend the next couple of months training and teaching the guys how to play rugby, but also focus on dealing with other issues with violence the guys might have.

Each week they have a number of sessions with the guys, some on rugby, some with famous current and ex sportmen (particularly boxers) who came from the same background, some with counselling, team building etc.

The series build up to the guys playing a decent sunday league type club side in a one off game. But also at the end they organise a day of interviews for the guys where some of them get jobs. Those that want to be helped can really turn their lives around. There are those who will just not want to be helped and leave the team.

I think it really shows the positive impact rugby can have on people lives and is a good way to promote the game especially in areas where it might not be that popular. Also the TV show itself bring new fans to the sport. My sister was always a football (soccer) fan while I prefer rugby. I got her into watching School of Hard Knocks as she likes reality shows. Then from that she started watching HC matches, previously she'd only watch Ireland internationals and was watching as an Ireland fan rather than a rugby fan. Now she much prefers watching rugby and when she's been over in the last few weeks she'd comment on the games that had been on over the weekend in the RWC.

Also I think the Lions being in Australia in 2013 is a massive opportunity to grow the sport.

I like the ideas of letting juniors in free to games, over here for some games a junior will get in free if accompanied by an adult. I think Leinster have done a great job in growing their support over the last few years. Obviously success has helped with that but at least a portion of the new support will stay through barren patches. Munster are the best supported club team in the world by a long way, for HC matches they bring more supporters than most home teams can muster. Ulster support is begining to grow now as the have a young improving team. Connact have a hard time as they're seen as the development team. But overall rugby is growing here in Ireland.

I think one of the big shocks for fans of other sports especially football (soccer), who come to rugby games foe the first time, is that before, during and after games the supporters of both sides mix in with each other with very little trouble. I also like the fact that on the rare occassion that trouble does break out the first instinct of other nearby fans is to break it up. I think this should be a big selling point for rugby as it's a much better atmosphere for families to attend games.

 

[Bowside]

With 7's now an olympic sport I think the aru needs to lobby and support the government in implementing a barefoot version of the sport in every primary school in australia.

They could select teams on weight and then play them off against the other local schools in small district competitions held every friday or wednesday afternoon at the local rugby clubs fields.

On the topic of junior rugby - I've long thought our scrum problems at senior level are due to the lack of emphasis on the scrum at junior level. The rules should be amended to remove the push limit rule, as well as an automatic forfeit of competition points if a team asks to start the game with uncontested scrums.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

With 7's now an olympic sport I think the aru needs to lobby and support the government in implementing a barefoot version of the sport in every primary school in australia.

They could select teams on weight and then play them off against the other local schools in small district competitions held every friday or wednesday afternoon at the local rugby clubs fields.

On the topic of junior rugby - I long thought our scrum problems at senior level are due to the lack of emphasis on the scrum at junior level. The rules should be amended to remove the push limit rule, as well as an automatic forfeit of competition points if a team asks to start the game with uncontested scrums.

Yes, that should be a priority. The pathway to the future success and prosperity of the game lies with the development ground work implemented in the not to distant future. I know the temptation will be to pump any AOC funding into the Sevens program but that should be resisted. There was news of a group being interesting in investing the in the program. I say, go for it as alongside the current levels of funding the injection of funds they could provide should help set up more competitive contracts for 7s players. All the AOC funding should be solely designated for schools development.

Use the current Super Rugby squad member's as development officers (they are already on the pay roll and they should be employed in this role outside of training and playing), provide all the kit and facilities (by teaming up with the local clubs for that). Start of with the 7s format for year 3 and 4, tens for years 5 and 6, 12's for 7 and 8 and the full 15s format for 9-12. Do this and Rugby will expand well beyond it current boundaries.

 

[FiveStarStu]

I'm sure it's been said multiple times, but national club championship, even if it's just a month-long cup.

4 Shute Shield teams, 3 QRU teams, 2 teams from ACTRU, VRU, RugbyWA, one team from SARU, NTRU, TRU.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

I'm sure it's been said multiple times, but national club championship, even if it's just a month-long cup.

4 Shute Shield teams, 3 QRU teams, 2 teams from ACTRU, VRU, RugbyWA, one team from SARU, NTRU, TRU.

I say bring back the Australian Rugby Shield. I think that was by far the best possible model. While suggestions of a national club competition are great most if not all the current clubs are pushing shit up hill financially at the moment and having to further fund a team in a national club comp would probably be too much.

With the ARS we had the closet model to true internal provincial representative Rugby. Yes, it was entirely amateur but that was it's intention and wouldn't take a great deal of effort to change its focus to something similar to that of the ITM Cup. We could use the traditional representative structures that are well established in Sydney, NSWC, Brisbane, QLDC, ACT/SNSW, Vic or Melbourne, SA Blackfalcons, WA Gold and the Darwin Mozzies. Add in a Western Sydney team to that and that a neat and tidy 10 team format with the history and significance so many derided the ARC for lacking. This would concentrate the talent while allowing Academy and extended squad member's play regular competitive Rugby and assist in developing the up and coming Schoolboys.

The ARU should be looking to leverage some of the exposure the game got to re-launch this. Start it modestly, look for a sponsor to cover travel costs and possible accommodation (approach a hoeal chain for god sakes). Get the indivudual Unions to chase sponsorship if they want to pay players.

 

[waratahjesus]

Hugh - I get your passion but spending more money on promoting while cutting all streams of revenue isn't the greatest idea currently.
It has to build slowly, none of our teams are rolling in cash here and the prices quoted for players and gates often blow out the bottom line of what is actually happening in reality.

And once and for all. Taking Tahs games to home bush is growing the game, it's averaging the biggest crowds of the season for the Tahs. Taking the game to Parramatta or penrith to 20000 seat stadiums will actually limit those able to see it. Parra especially keeps getting selected by people when it's ten minutes up the road from home bush and a shitload harder to get into and out of. I understand home bush lacks atmosphere but it's doing the job.

 

[Braveheart81]

And once and for all. Taking Tahs games to home bush is growing the game, it's averaging the biggest crowds of the season for the Tahs.

Is it though?

Is there a new demographic attending the games at Homebush or is it just because they are the biggest games of the season?

Would these same games get an even bigger crowd if they stayed at the SFS?

 

[waratahjesus]

Is it though?

Is there a new demographic attending the games at Homebush or is it just because they are the biggest games of the season?

Would these same games get an even bigger crowd if they stayed at the SFS?

They are big games, but they were getting smaller and smaller at the sfs. I don't think e would attract the same number. Plus the stadium is kicking in money upfront for the gat that allows them to promote it more, something there unable to do at the sfs.

Regardless of anything, taking a game that's getting over 30000 and putting it in a 20000 seat stadium 10 minutes up the road is a joke.

 

[Braveheart81]

Oh, I completely agree that playing a game at Parramatta would be worst idea ever.

 

[Ruggo]

You want to win over the West, here it is. Promote the crap out of the round one clash vs QLD. Milk the state rivalry angle for everything it is worth and get the people in the West focussed on NSW beating QLD rather that any percieved class barriers that still linger around rugby. It is a golden opportunity given we have the jump on the NRL. Get this one right and the side effects could be really positive.

 

[Braveheart81]

If Barry O'Farrell wasn't such a rugby hating #%^ maybe he'd get a bit of inter-state Premier rivalry going on in the weeks leading up to the match.

He won't though of course.

 

[Moses]

If Barry O'Farrell wasn't such a rugby hating #%^ maybe he'd get a bit of inter-state Premier rivalry going on in the weeks leading up to the match.

He won't though of course.

What is this based on? I've had several twitter conversations with Baz around and during rugby fans. He takes his kids to Tahs matches and from my admittedly distant observations rugby is his sport of choice. If he were just chasing the votes, he'd say NRL for sure.

 

[Braveheart81]

Entirely based around the Wallabies Farewell at Sydney Town Hall before the RWC. Everything he said about rugby and the Wallabies came across as backhanded compliments.

If he actually likes rugby, he should maybe choose his words better.

 

[FiveStarStu]

I think a 16-team knockout competition would be an awesome end to the season.

That said, we'll never have a domestic competition under current leadership.

 

[Bowside]

I think a 16-team knockout competition would be an awesome end to the season.

That said, we'll never have a domestic competition under current leadership.

I think this club cup thing can work. The way I would do it is to have 10 teams - (3 NSW, 3 QLD, 2 ACT, 1 VIC, 1 WA) - seeded into two pools of 5. If it is to expensive to have a WA club you could have 2 Vic or a 4th NSW. All teams would be club teams - no amalgamated teams. Teams would qualify by winning their respective club comp (or coming second or third in QLD and NSW).

If it is a success with 10 teams you then move to 12, with 3 pools of 4.

I'd like to see it played during the break in the super rugby season maybe.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I think this club cup thing can work. The way I would do it is to have 10 teams - (3 NSW, 3 QLD, 2 ACT, 1 VIC, 1 WA) - seeded into two pools of 5. If it is to expensive to have a WA club you could have 2 Vic or a 4th NSW. All teams would be club teams - no amalgamated teams. Teams would qualify by winning their respective club comp (or coming second or third in QLD and NSW).

If it is a success with 10 teams you then move to 12, with 3 pools of 4.

I'd like to see it played during the break in the super rugby season maybe.

You couldn't do it then because the club comps havent been decided.
You will also have a problem with contracted players because of the limit on the number of games they are allowed/required to play

 

[Bowside]

You couldn't do it then because the club comps havent been decided.
You will also have a problem with contracted players because of the limit on the number of games they are allowed/required to play

You would obviously go on the results from the year before.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

and the contracts issue - maybe the heats gone out of that since Demo left RUPA?

 

[Bowside]

and the contracts issue - maybe the heats gone out of that since Demo left RUPA?

They are club players, most of them will be looking for a bit of exposure. As long as the expenses are covered I dont see what the issue is.