Maximising the opportunity of Rugby 7s in Australia

[p.Tah]

It is widely believed that the inclusion of Rugby 7s in the Olympics is a watershed moment for the Game. As a result it is now included in the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games, the Pacific Games and the Pan-American Games. A sevens Grand Prix series is played in Europe and of course we have the expanding IRB Sevens World Series. Club invitational tournaments are flourishing in areas where rugby has traditionally had little presence, including China, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Saudi Arabia, The Netherlands, Cuba and Mexico just to name a few.

In Australia, outside the club 7s circuit, it appears that we are slow off the blocks. You may not be a fan of the 7s format, but the less congested version of the game is easier to understand by non-rugby types.

AFL legend Kevin Sheedy said “After being locked up in the AFL for 40 years, I’ve gone out and seen the world … and stumbled upon a concept that is so brilliant it’s heading to the Olympics – rugby sevens. I had three days in Hong Kong and while I know it wasn’t pure rugby, it was pure entertainment. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Rugby 7s has greater appeal than the 15s format, to the very large AFL and Rugby League communities. If managed well, this can only benefit Rugby as a whole.

What is being done or should be done at:
·school level
·club level
·professional level

Most importantly how can we expand the Game in Australia through 7s without diminishing the appeal of the 15s game?

 

[p.Tah]

OK I'm going to start pinching from other treads

Here's throwing something out there - what about a sevens series? State/franchise teams meet once every few weeks for a carnival. Maybe where-ever there's a Super bye.

Cuts down on player costs, travel costs, helps for Rio, probably more marketable.

Yeah, good idea Stu.

 

[p.Tah]

I agree Stu. If they do go down the track of a 7's series I think that they should incorporate the current tournaments like Noosa, Byron, Darwin, Central Coast etc and add tournaments in Melbourne, Tassie and Adelaide. Have a 8-10 tournament series with maybe 10 core teams and then open up the other spots to local or invitational teams.
I'd also love to see the ARU broadcast it on a internet TV channel. They could secure sponsors and also make it free for people to watch as long as they register for it. It would build a database on interested people to promote the game to.
If the internet channel worked they could have Premier/Shute games on demand on it too as well as schoolboy and rep games. If they have enough good content then they could go to Fox with the idea of a rugby channel.

 

[p.Tah]

I understand there is a 7s club circuit in Australia during the Summer months. This is good to create some depth but I would hazard a guess that most rugby supporters, let alone the wider Australian sporting public wouldn't know that there are 7s tournaments in Australia.

To build the sport I believe we need a semi-professional circuit on Free to Air TV. The beauty of a 7s tournament is that many teams congregate on one area and play over a weekend. The draw back from a TV point of view is that no free to air TV will broadcast 2 days of footage. It's too long and too expensive to film. To bring 7s to Free to Air TV we need to truncate the format (just for TV).

I believe an 8 team men's tournament, 2 team women's and one school game, over a 4 hour period during Summer would appeal to a broadcaster. (Just to clarify, the men don't play the women or shools theyare discret comps in the tournament)
The 8 team men's knock out tournament is set out below:

The 4 hour tournament would be played out in the following way:
Game 1: Men 1 vs Men 2
Game 2: Men 3 vs Men 4
Game 3: Men 5 vs Men 6
Game 4: Men 7 vs Men 8
Game 5: Women's 1 vs Women's 2
Game 6: Women's 3 vs. Women's 4
Game 7: Semi Final: Winner game 1 vs. Winner game 2
Game 8: Semi Final: Winner of game 3 vs. Winner game 4
Game 9: Top 2 schools 7s sides vs. each other
Game 10: Final (Women's) Winner of game 5 vs. winner of game 6
Game 11: Final (Men's) Winner of game 7 vs. winner game 8

The challenge with this is that the men's finalist will have played 3 games in 4 hours. Tough stuff, but it'll sort out the fittest players and that can only help our National squad.

Of the 8 men's team, 5 of them should carry the Australian Super Rugby brands (Waratahs, Reds, Brumbies, Rebels & Force). the remaining teams could be select teams from Fiji, Tonga and Samoa for example. The benefit of the Super Rugby team names is that the branding is displayed on Free to Air TV and canny Franchises could use the opportunity to plug memberships for the start of the 15s season.

Including women's teams in the tournament helps us create depth for the National squad and promotes the game to aspiring sportswomen.

Including the top two schools from the State (for example) provide a goal for schools and a link to the grassroots.

This could be run as a one off (pilot) with the view to add more legs in the future.

Just an idea. There is a fair bit more behind this concept (specifically around the broadcasting logistics) but too much to post. I think it would be a good idea and one the ARU should consider.

Any thoughts or am I talking to myself?

 

[Rob42]

Good thread p.Tah, you're not talking to yourself. Where did Sheedy make those comments? He's usually a relentless propagandist for AFL - which is why they gave him the Western Sydney job.

 

[Jets]

The quote is from this article from Sheedy.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/afl/afls-answer-to-rugby-sevens/story-e6frexwr-1225860354628

 

[wamberal]

Rugby Sevens can be a great event. I know, I lived in Hong Kong during the late seventies, when the local Sevens event was just starting out, and I saw it grow and grow until it became the huge spectacle and three day party that it is today.

However, I doubt that the Hong Kong Sevens has had much impact in terms of the Fifteens game in Hong Kong, and the region.

Yes, it would be great to have a local Sevens carnival. It would be particularly good if a private venture took the initiative. But I would not expect it have much more than a marginal impact on the popularity of the game as a whole.

 

[Jets]

I like the idea p.Tah and would support it if it came off. Another option would be to hold the event over 2 days and sell broadcasting rights in a 2 hour package that could show the QF's, SF's and final for the men's and women's. This way we would be able to use the tournaments for conditioning the athletes for future 7's tournaments and would have a TV friendly format.
If you look at what the Singapore Cricket Club do for their tournament they have schoolboy's, club and country tournaments all played in the one event. If you had 8 tournaments around the country you could have regional tournaments for schoolboy's, junior clubs and women's and the final tournament could be the national championships.
The CRC in the States is also a great TV product that is shown on NBC. http://www.usasevenscrc.com/

 

[Maorifullah]

I dont think there will be enough players for Rugby sevens club. Theres a small competition going on in brisbane but its just club rugby teams putting together seven teams and there's only about 3 divisons so players have to play up. But it would be great too see sevens get bigger in Australia and start from a young age

 

[p.Tah]

Jets, I like the idea of a highlights package. I enjoy the IRB Sevens highlights that Fox shows. Speaking to a friend involved in broadcasting, the Networks aren't that keen on highlight packages because they prefer live sport. The main reason being that the Betting Agencies are major advertisers during live sport (not so much in prerecorded sport for obvious reasons). I'm not a fan of betting, but that is one of the commercial realities.

I really like your Singapore Cricket Club example. Imagine the pride of a young kid being able to play in a tournament with the club and national teams. Those are the occasions that you never forget.

 

[Rob42]

I think networks like live sport also because it's not endangered by internet piracy. Live sport is almost always more interesting than highlights anyway.

 

[FiveStarStu]

There's a quote that I read somewhere regarding Twenty20 cricket that I think illustrates why we should look at Sevens more seriously.

'I never liked Twenty20 cricket until I watched it.'

Personal opinions of T20 aside, it has arguably done more for cricket in the modern era than Packer and WSC did in the 80's, in terms of increasing the audience to the game, introducing people to the game who would not have otherwise taken part, and making a game not suited to commercialisation, instantly marketable.

Cricket and rugby have a lot in common. The most popular form of the game is a longer, more dour spectacle where tradition is paramount. It has a wide appeal to existing fans of the sport, who appreciate its tactics and strategies, but that market seems capped, and introducing new people to it is challenging, given the complexity of the event.

If we have a new event, not bogged down as much in tradition, that is more appealing to watch and broadcast, and is over in a few hours, then we're in a much better position.

 

[Jets]

Jets, I like the idea of a highlights package. I enjoy the IRB Sevens highlights that Fox shows. Speaking to a friend involved in broadcasting, the Networks aren't that keen on highlight packages because they prefer live sport. The main reason being that the Betting Agencies are major advertisers during live sport (not so much in prerecorded sport for obvious reasons). I'm not a fan of betting, but that is one of the commercial realities.

I really like your Singapore Cricket Club example. Imagine the pride of a young kid being able to play in a tournament with the club and national teams. Those are the occasions that you never forget.

My thinking was more about showing the prerecorded QF's and then you could show the semi's and final live, although I didn't state that in my post. Then it would create some interest in the finals and give the networks more content in the shorter time period.

 

[p.Tah]

I like the eight man competition because it concentrates our talent (5 local teams and 3 Pacific Islands teams). The quality would be higher than a larger 7s tournament with 16 or 20 teams. I still would like the club 7s Summer comp to operate, but that would be a step down. This is the "Super Rugby" of 7s.

The series could be as large or as small as finance/broadcasters permit. It could be one off tournament or 8.

Say NZ starts up a similar tournament at the same time. Their verision could be televised on Saturday into Australia and NZ, the Australian version on Sundays (for example). Two days/nights of content and the production costs are split between two broadcasters.

Now time for the real pie in the sky thinking. Say further down the track 7s in North America, South America and Asia develops to a point where they have a similar 7s series. South Africa has a comp as well. Bring the top teams from those comps to play in a larger Club Championship tournament at the end of the season. The one tournamanet could then be televised across a number of countries bringing more revenue for the sport.

A point I think that is important is that the 7s teams must use the branding and work in the same systems as the parent 15s team. This should keep the 7s and 15s together under the rugby banner and reduce the chance of us developing competiting sports.

 

[p.Tah]

I dont think there will be enough players for Rugby sevens club.

There is, they are just playing a rival code at the moment

 

[p.Tah]

There's a quote that I read somewhere regarding Twenty20 cricket that I think illustrates why we should look at Sevens more seriously.

'I never liked Twenty20 cricket until I watched it.'

I agree, 7s is a golden opportunity for Rugby. The AFL and NRL like the concept, that's why Sheedy wants to develop an AFL 11s and RL is keen on 9s (Interestingly a version developed by Danny Buderus)

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...t-may-kickoff-2014-season-20120815-2487g.html

 

[Badger]

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) Sydney has been announced as sponsor of the NSW Schoolboys Sevens 2013 Championship which is run by the NSWRU. The Championship culminates with a finals day on 8 September 2013.

http://www.hketosydney.gov.hk/wnitem__134.php

 

[wamberal]

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) Sydney has been announced as sponsor of the NSW Schoolboys Sevens 2013 Championship which is run by the NSWRU. The Championship culminates with a finals day on 8 September 2013.

http://www.hketosydney.gov.hk/wnitem__134.php

Smart marketing. Now let's hope they put more money in, especially at the senior level. The brand "Hong Kong" goes with Sevens rugby, I am surprised that it has taken so long for them to use it. Maybe they assumed that everybody would associate HSBC with Hong Kong.

 

[Crashy]

anyone know what the schoolboy rugby sponsorship arrangement is worth. If there is one thing that rugby in Aus needs its more $ spent in proper places.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) Sydney has been announced as sponsor of the NSW Schoolboys Sevens 2013 Championship which is run by the NSWRU. The Championship culminates with a finals day on 8 September 2013.

http://www.hketosydney.gov.hk/wnitem__134.php

Good news. 8 September is not too far away. Where can we find more information about this event.

I hope it is better patronised than the Waratah Shield, where there have been nearly as many games forfeited as there have been played.