Despite what many stakeholders think, Rugby Union’s future is at risk unless it embraces a series of reforms and becomes truly global. In the face of strong competition from other sports, rugby must change its approach to international development.
Put simply, rugby will not fulfil its potential unless it reaches out to new players, new supporters and new markets.
Today, rugby is popular in only a few countries, representing a tiny proportion of the world’s population and economic value. Rugby’s governing bodies are not doing enough to expand the game’s boundaries. Look at how rugby has fallen short on vital issues of international development:
- The failure to secure a place for Rugby Sevens in the 2012 Olympic Games, despite the fact it first appeared in the Olympics in 1900
- The inability to accommodate Argentina into a regularly-scheduled international rugby calendar before 2012 at the earliest – despite Argentina finishing third at the last Rugby World Cup
- The decision to host the next Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, a small, rugby-saturated market, rather than in Japan, a springboard to the fast-growing Asian economies
Why has rugby failed to become truly global? Because the game’s structures enshrine parochialism. There is no organisation that offers strategic leadership for the good of the whole game – not the IRB, not the Six Nations and not the Tri-Nations. Responsibility should lie with the International Rugby Board (IRB) but it is currently handicapped by its own structure:
- The IRB is unrepresentative and undemocratic. It takes just four Foundation Unions to ‘veto’ proposals that might have been agreed by the other 111 members.
- The IRB’s corporate governance is outdated and lacks transparency. Decisions do not attract the level of scrutiny appropriate to a multi-national organisation generating and investing large amounts of money on behalf of its members.
Structural reform and strategic change are essential, and decisions about major events will provide a vital test of rugby’s appetite and ability to develop: will it convince the IOC to include Sevens in the 2016 Olympics and will rugby’s choice of host nation for the 2015 World Cup unequivocally signal its commitment to a global game?
The enclosed report, Putting Rugby First, is being sent to rugby stakeholders around the world: administrators, players, referees, government ministers, commercial partners, journalists and influential supporters. It provides an independent perspective on rugby’s current status, identifies some of the underlying problems and proposes six goals to help solve them. The report is intended to start a debate among rugby’s stakeholders about how to become truly global and secure the future of this great game.
