Australia
ARU announces increased rugby participation rates
ESPN Staff
April 20, 2015
ARU CEO Bill Pulver launches non-contact Sevens in regional NSW, Sydney, August 6, 2014
ARU CEO Bill Pulver launched a non-contact Sevens format in 2014 © Twitter
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More people played rugby in Australia last than ever before, with 687,488 participants, an increase of 12% compared with 2013, contrary to perceptions that the game is losing relevance, the Australian Rugby Union has announced.

Some 241,577 of the participants played in competitions with five or more games/sessions ("competition participants"), an increase of nearly 5%, while a further 445,911 participants played fewer than five games/sessions ("Promotion participants") - an increase of 16%.

Rugby participation has grown annually by an average of 20% for the past two years, and the Australian Rugby Union believes the trend will continue through the introduction of a new non-contact version of the game and the Sevens competition at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

General Manager of Rugby Participation Andrew Larratt said the national findings were encouraging, with the introduction of programs that are part of a plan to attract new and diverse people to the code and in the long term to re-energise the club game - which has seen growth of less than 1% from 2013.

"There's a growing appetite for Rugby Sevens and we expect that to continue as we sharpen our focus on Sevens in the lead-up to the 2016 Olympics," Larratt said. "However, we acknowledge that we're only seeing marginal growth in the traditional format of our game. It's important for us to work closely with clubs and competitions nationally to help recruit and retain players and seek to grow demand and convert new participants across all three formats - VIVA7s, Sevens and 15-a-side Rugby."

Larratt also highlighted the need to continue to build on the 6.3% increase in school competitions as Australian Rugby looks to broaden rugby's appeal to boys and girls across the country.

Women's rugby saw 12,733 participants in 15-a-side, with Sevens attracting a further 13,488 for a combined increase of 18% compared to 2013.

At a state level, when aggregating all participant categories, Queensland led the country with 296,356 participants while New South Wales has the highest number of competition participants with 116,521. ACT and Western Australia maintained overall participation rates for club competition, however significantly increased promotional or occasional participation, sampled over 60,000 and 40,000 participants respectively. Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory recorded marginal decreases in competition and non-competition programs in 2014, but Tasmania and Northern Territory achieved positive growth with more than 5,000 promotional participants.

Australian Rugby Union Annual Participation Census notes

The Annual Participation Census was conducted using methodology in line with other major sports, and it was undertaken by independent demographers, Street Ryan and Associates, during the Census calendar year of 1 October - 30 September 2014.

The census defines two categories of participants:

  • Competition (Comp >5): playing Rugby/participating in an organised competition/tournament/structured program at least five times over the census year.
  • Promotional (Promo <5): playing Rugby/participating in a competition/ tournament/program less than five times over the census year.
  • A player can be a participant more than once in any year (e.g. a 15s club and school player who also plays in a Sevens competition in the summer is considered a participant three times.

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