Alarming recent statistics reveal the full extent of the battle that rugby union is embroiled in Australia in the fight for players.
New research from Roy Morgan shows that the number of regular participants aged 14 and older in rugby union has dropped from 148,000 in 2001 to just 55,000 in 2016. That’s a massive decrease of 67%. It puts ballroom dancing, softball, baseball, squash, badminton and table tennis all above rugby union in terms of the number of participants.
While the number of players of all sports in Australia has declined, perhaps in part to an ageing population and now a more indoors-led lifestyle, the biggest hit has been taken by ‘the game they play in heaven’ and pool/snooker/billiards. Rugby union’s main competitors in the market, the three other football codes, all have many more participants. Soccer is top dog and growing fast with 623,000. Aussie Rules has 253,000, with just a 1% decline, while rugby league has 127,000 with a 27% decline.
At the grassroots level, rugby union is under attack. The news will come as a smack across the face for the Australian Rugby Union (ARU). But it is the ARU that is arguably most to blame for the current malaise. Their move to tax amateur clubs and players, back in 2014, was both hugely unpopular and unfair. In the need for revenue they have penalized the people and the institutions that are the lifeblood of the sport.
Just over two years ago the NSW Suburban Rugby Union had this to say in a strongly-worded letter sent to the ARU over the levy, which was published by ESPN: "NSWSRU prides itself on being quiet achievers and self-sufficient - we are not agitators or renegades and we have never previously considered taking such drastic action. However, we cannot sit idly by and simply roll out National Policy that will have serious and detrimental impacts on grassroots rugby which will then have an impact on the future of rugby at all levels."
In any sport the amateurs, the junior players, clubs and volunteers are essential. Without them there is no game, no system. They provide the participants and fans, breed and develop the professionals and provide the framework for the sport to exist. Essentially now the ARU is strangling the people and the clubs it desperately needs to survive. And getting them massively offside is starting to have dire consequences.
It’s not only in grassroots where rugby union is losing out. The professional game is a mess. Super Rugby is struggling and one of its five franchises is due to be culled. The Wallabies have been in free-fall since the 2015 World Cup final. The NRL, AFL and A-League are winning the fight in Australia for the best athletes.
For far too long rugby union has been based around the private school system, corporate support and inner city elites. While rugby is a more egalitarian sport in countries like New Zealand, South Africa and England, in Australia it is much more distinctly just a middle-class and upper-class pursuit. And that spells trouble in a country of just 23 million where the battle for the sporting hearts and minds of boys and girls is relentless.
The sport needs to spread its wings and focus on getting more kids and adults playing the game. It needs to entice people from all backgrounds, not just those from affluent Caucasian families, to give it a go. Grassroots rugby union needs investment and support, not heavy taxing and being taken for granted. The dynamics of Australia’s population, and its sporting habits, are changing and rugby union needs to evolve with the times or risk irrelevance.
