Rugby's own version of the T20 inevitable?

Jurie roux the CEO of SARU was a guest speaker at a local Rally called "Die Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees" (Klein Karoo National Art festival).

In his speech he made some interesting and controversial statements.



1. He mentioned the popularity of sevens rugby and the locally held Varsity Cup has shown most interest amongst fans as it is seen as better entertainment.
2. Becuase of this trend he believes the spectators and broadcasters will determine the direction rugby on the international stage will go.
3.In his view people prefer the more entertaining format of sevens as they don't want to concentrate for more than 20 minutes at a time.
4.He there for believes the T20 format of rugby isn't far away.
5. According to him the spectator numbers in New Zealand and Australia are reducing in comparison to countries in the eastern block.
6. apparently Mexico is the country where rugby is growing the fastest considering there were but 2500 rugby players three years ago compared to 27500 at present.
7. He believes this could be a reality as soon as three years from now.
8. He believes there might not necessarily be a global season but a similar type world tour program for a T20 style tournamnet that would be played as a circuit type tournament.
9. According to him after the Super rugby match of the Crusaders and the Sharks last year at Twickenham, 5 countries in the NH (he didn't name names) suggested that the halftime break be increased from 10 to 15 minutes as they fear the pace of the SH game and would require more recovery time during the break.

Afrikaans article in Volksblad


Now I am fully aware of the fact that some spectators want to see rugby be as fast as sevens or see as many tries as rugby league. My problem with this view is that rugby Union has been going for more than 100 years in its current format, to suggest that we are all only able to focus n something becuase we deem entertainment value as running with ball in hand and scoring tries, then I am afraid they are selling us short.

Most people I know follow rugby union becuase it is different to Rgby League, and find sevens rugby only mildly entertaining.

In my view Rugby Union as it is has more facets, more intrigue and more meat than any other sport involving a ball. furthermore it is only logical that rugby will grow faster in countries that have not yet reached their full potential and think it is foolish to look at that as a justification to suggest markets are demanding more "entertainment value"

This T20 type circuit he talks about may well be a way to attract more people from underdeveloped rugby countries to the code. But it is ridiculous to see how much belief SARU seems to put in the demands and suggestions of the broadcasting giants.

And lastly to suggest the NH wants the game to remain slow becuase they fear the pace of the game is frankly, well just arrogant.

It's a strange one Biltong, i think also that some of the statements from Roux perhaps don't reflect the slightly different cultures amongst rugby FANS as well as players.

He talks for instance about spectator numbers, but in this regard in England the game is in pretty rude health, and there's a decent core of fans who are pretty happy/used to watching 10 man up the jumper stuff. It's played here in mud and rain so until the calendar changes, and i can see why it should, that won't change dramatically.

I think there is a big difference between 1 day cricket which took most of the daylight hours in a given day and a 80 min match of rugby.

T20 cricket is still a couple of hours long.... much longer than a standard game of rugby.

7s is fun to play and the atmosphere at the events is great... but its less to do with the sport and more to do with the party atmosphere which has become the norm.

Its easier to market 7s to places around the globe where rugby is little known because its relatively simple to play from stratch. If you can run hard & fast for 20 mins then you have a chance.... see Kenya in the world 7s for instance.
Thats far different from XVs which is technically quite a complex sport.

Twenty20 works because its short in length but not short enough that you need to see more than 1 match at a time to warrant going to watch the match live... that means you can have matches all over the country and maximise the attendance numbers and marketing revenue. Before that club cricket around the world was dead.

7s is totally different. Matches are 20 mins long and you won't be able to increase them to lets say 40 mins due to it being physically draining. No one would go and watch a single match.. they would need at least 4 matches to justify going to the stadium... that means 8 different sides.

Given that it would be unlikely you could have more than one stadium per weekend hosting a 7s match... this significantly knocks down its economic appeal.
Just in this round of S15 rugby about 150,000 people went to stadiums to watch their teams in 7 locations. You'll never be able to generate that sort of numbers or income in a single location for 7s rugby. Think about the indirect revenue generated in these 7 locations such as transport, food & drink, additional entertainment revenue etc.... all that would be lost and placed to one location only. Thousands of jobs are dedicated to places like Newlands and its ability to draw 40000 fans to the area each fortnight... take that away and host perhaps 1 or 2 weekend tournaments a year and the local economies in these places will collapse.

I've heard SARU talk on and on about finding a rugby version of twenty20... the reason is money. They saw how much revenue was generated and they want to bring that to rugby. More likely they saw how much the directors of CSA paid themselves in 'bonuses' when SA hosted the IPL in 09 or 10 and fancied upgrading their wife's BMW.

I guess what union or at least the 15s version of the game can take from sevens is that they have a meaningful circuit that takes rugby across the planet and involves all the teams who play in it in a meaningful competition that is tiered and doesn´t favour the big unions and gives them something to play for even when they´re eliminated from the main comp.

We have the 6N and the 4N. The Asia Cup and the Churchill Cup (not sure if that has been disbanded now) work to a lesser extent and then there´s a big yawning gap of indifference and invisibility.

Rugby could learn a thing or two from sevens to make tests outside these main comps stand for something and to make the World Cup a more even playing field who qualify to compete in it.

The return to the SH of traditional 3 match tours is a good start. The SH teams should be involved in something similar when they tour in November. But there is also much more to be done in terms of guaranteeing that every match is perceived (after all it does) by everyone that it matters instead of having this idea of dead rubbers and rugby non-events.

Kia

completely right in terms of XV's have a lot to learn from 7s.

The way the HK 7s was marketed for instance was entertainment and an event which appealled to all teams regardless of the quality of their side.

So many people are calling for the RWC to include plate competitions etc which would give smaller rugby nations something to aim for and realistically achieve.

Will rugby in the USA, Canada, Italy, Japan, Georgia etc get to a point where they can compete against the current tier 1 nations??? Not in the next 50 years... so why widen its appeal?

Why not?they`ve ruined Cricket for money T20 maybe something but Cricket IT`S NOT!!!!!!

I'd like a British league to be set up to be honest it would be far more fun than what we have.