Having a few beers last night with a few of the great and good of the rugby media fraternity, ruminating on everything from old war stories from the last World Cup to Sam Burgess’ inclusion at this one, one particular topic struck a chord.
Where is the hype?
The World Cup is two weeks away, but you could be forgiven for thinking it was much further down the line than that. Working in sport and rugby in particular means I have my head firmly in the rugby sand, so to speak, but taking a step back for a moment did make me wonder: does anyone else know that there’s a World Cup on?
We were drinking in the Sun Inn in Richmond, a popular pub for a post-Twickenham meet-up in a part of town whose juxtaposition to the home of English rugby means it is always replete with swathes of fans on matchdays.
But save for the odd advert on the rotating hoardings at the train station, there was a glaring lack of presence for rugby in an area that will be hosting its own fanzone just down the road at Old Deer Park. These fanzones should end up being a great initiative, but outside of them little noise is being made.
Where are the banners flying from lamp-posts? Where are the volunteers handing out flyers? Where are the garish branded adverts plastered across every hoarding in the stations? The big rugby brands and official World Cup partners have, in the last couple of weeks, launched their campaigns but it all feels very late to me.
South West London, and the Richmond/Twickenham area in particular, is about as ‘rugby’ as it gets. If the hype is this diluted here, it must be entirely non-existent elsewhere.
I didn’t make it across to the Olympic Stadium for the Samoa vs Barbarians game last weekend, but have watched the farcical sprinkler incident. My colleagues inform me there was not a single piece of World Cup advertising within the stadium, either, but instead promotions for West Ham season tickets. And this is a ground that will be hosting some huge games at the tournament proper.
I am always loath to draw comparisons between the two sports, but you have to imagine that if this were the footballing equivalent you wouldn’t be able to walk three feet without a round-shaped ball assaulting one or more of your senses.
Rugby is so far away from that, that I was genuinely speaking to a non-rugby fan the other day who expressed her surprise that the World Cup was just around the corner. When I informed her, her question was “where is it?”. That says it all really.
Rugby plays firmly second fiddle to football in this country and hosting its own World Cup should be a chance to spread the gospel to those that currently aren’t interested in, or don’t know about, the game. And yet newspapers continue to run stories about little known French footballers ahead of ‘the third biggest sporting event in the world’, as the Rugby World Cup claims to be.
Of course, most of you reading this will be rugby connoisseurs and will evidently be immersed in the tournament, because you love rugby anyway. But it really feels like more could be done to capture the interest of the casual viewer, or extol its virtues to those that see the sport as dangerous or closed-off.
This sort of opportunity comes around so infrequently, I am baffled that more isn’t being done to capitalise on it.
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
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Yes in the UK soccer is football and Rugby is Rugby and never the twain shall meet. The two different sets of supporters are as far apart as you could get,however come the commencement of the competition the grounds will be full of fanatical rugby people who I can assure you will totally oblivious to all the English premier league football going on all around them.Bring it on!
I’ve had Sky Sports news on in the background whilst working from home today.
One mention and a 5 minute Dewi Morris interview…..That’s all there’s been.
(Anthony) Martial law.
Exeter has banners from every lamp post, yarn bombing all over the place. It’s been really taken to heart down here. Elsewhere i couldn’t really say.
Glad to hear it!
Cardiff is building up nicely for the English World Cup :-)
Be careful what you wish for. Nothing worse than watching a game of rugby in a pub surrounded by knobheads shouting ill-informed opinions. The fewer “mainstream” fans the game attracts the better, as far as I’m concerned.
Had the same conversation with non-rugby fan at barbers last night. He knew it was RWC year but no idea it was in England.
I noticed a couple of lamp-post banners had appeared near London Bridge station this morning, and I got on a tube train with a disconcertingly large picture of Alun Wyn Jones on it a couple of weeks ago, but that’s about it.
Surely all the tickets can’t have been sold to hardcore rugby fans? Or can they?? Either way I think the marketing companies, sponsors etc. have really missed a trick with this one. They’ll be kicking themselves once the hype sets in. The hype will set in soon won’t it??
There’s a part of me that still blames the dominance of football (not helped by the endless transfer window headlines over the past week), but seriously? I remember more hype in 2003 than now :-(
Couldn’t agree more Jamie if this was the football word cup every major brand would have been showing football related commercials for about 2 months by now and i would be sick to the teeth of them, but I have seen maybe 1 or 2 rugby related commercials.
For all my football supporting friends most of them aren’t aware that there is a rugby world cup this year and if they are most have no idea how soon it starts or that it is a home tournament.
For a tournament the RFU are tipping to be the biggest and best yet, they obviously haven’t stepped outside their bubble to see how it is percieved by the masses.
No advertisement in Cardiff that I have noticed, really poor
JAZUS! 2 weeks 2 GO! ……………..POO KNITTING time!!!!
DDD
When about c10% of your entire school population plays the sport in Games lessons then the general adult population will ignore rugby union/the RFU for what it is England and will always be.
Elitist, the sport of the Upper Middle class and the private schools.
It is almost non-existent in the League heartlands of the North. A very very poor relation in terms of participation and following compared to football in the Midlands and the South.
Is it only now the English threads realise this????
Got to give you credit there Enoch. Any post about any subject and you’ll find a way to slag off the English in it. That’s commitment.
PS if you really think rugby is elitist in England then pop to Exeter, Cornwall, Gloucs, Bristol to see it played all over the place … it’s a boring old cliche and it’s not true.
Spot on Brighty. Having grown up playing in the West Country, there is not much link to upper middle classes at Dings Crusaders, Matson, Bridgwater or Barnstable.
As someone who lives five miles from Twickenham I’ve found that the real change approaching world cup time is that the casual rugby fans are taking it a lot more seriously: everyone seems more aware of rugby, and more excited about it! I think the lack of media coverage, however, is ridiculous and really disappointing: it seems that since sky bt and bbc missed out on the rights then they can’t be bothered to be interested: the tournament hasn’t even started but already it seems as if itv are doing a bad job compared to the advertising which sky and BT are putting into the premier league
Well there is big hype begining to build in ireland despite the fact that our big gaelic sports , hurling and gaelic football are close to their big showpiece annual finals , still there is huge interest across the board re -team selection and people are begining to talk about the world cup itself. But perhaps one big draw back for the r w c is that it is staged to late in the year , mid summer june and july is really the only time of year to stage a big global showpiece sporting event so perhaps it needs to move to a summer slot in future tournaments to create the hype that surrounds the soccer world cup and olympics .
Based here in Scotland I spend my shift surrounded by football fanatics, granted I know v.little about football and an English co-worker pointed out the Welsh football team had moved into the fifa top 10 (which I was oblivious about) don’t get me wrong impressive for such a small country but I’m more excited about the world cup. He was blabbering on about a “potential” wales/England game during the euro when I told him just hold up there’s a Wales v England rugby match coming on he had no clue.
I spoke to several people when they ask me what I’m reading on the news (can only access bbc news at work) I’m always on the rugby waiting for an update to brighten my day. All but one of the staff could name a single international rugby player, and the 1 who could actually attended the Scotland game, not because she is a fan of rugby but cos she represents Scotland in another sport and got given free tickets! She even had to ask me how many points for a “score” n stuff like that.
It’s ridiculous, fortunately my Kid started playing at a local club but none of his friends from school will play rugby with him (the club has maybe 15 kids ranging from 5 to 15 so limited what they can learn), the school is introducing it when I asked how much time they’ll get no more than 3-5hrs this term and only due to world cup, yet they have 3 football clubs in the school :/
Just had an email from RFU/World Cup inviting me to buy tickets for the “Twickenham Fanzone” performances by Heaven 17 and Marc Almond. WTF? Is the marketing team at Twickenham on crack or something? Who the hell, when confronted with promoting the world cup, immediately thought “let’s get those 80s has beens in!!”?
And for the record this old curmudgeon detests fanzones. Do you ever (genuine question, I don’t go) see them at football matches? I can’t see it happening. Why do we need a special area of the ground for fans – isn’t the whole area a fanzone? I fear that in it’s desperation to push for new markets Rugby has decided to get the whole Nathan Barley crew in.
To be fair I was much of the same opinion on them until 2011. I was in Auckland for a 3 weeks to watch the last WC (slight waste of cash as and England fan…) but the fanzone was by the Harbour and was the centre of everything for fans. It wasn’t right next to the stadium, but place for fans from all teams around the world to come to. Massive screens, big beer tents, games and the like. Watching the NZ vs Aus semi final in the Fanzone with thousands of fans was one of the highlights on my time over there.
The choice of bands however, not so great!
Fan Zones sound like a good idea to me. Having one at Twickenham though – not quite sure how that works. Presumably this is not on Match days?
I may be of a different generation to others, but I heard Heaven 17 (live) on the Radio the other day and they were great. Indeed, Duran Duran and Squeeze were (live) on the Radio just this morning and they are releasing new albums. All sound goo dto me. Maybe its my age, but we seem to be in an age where these 80’s/90’s groups are becoming retrospectively popular again.
Marc Almond, on the other hand……..not so sure!
Definitely think they make sense away from Twickenham to raise the perception and awareness.
There should be mini-fan zones (been tents with merchandise in) dotted all across London but there doesn’t seem to be anything.
Who the f!@$ is Marc almond?
Way to go to make me feel old there Stu….
Marc Almond is Alain (Starsign Pyrex) Roland’s surrogate father. – that’s not for public consumption though – Marc consumed all sorts of things in private!!! Making a bit of a Cumback at the mo.
DDD
Master of the single entendre!
To be fair i had no idea who he was until i googled him. Maybe because most people know him as that bloke from SoftCell who had that one hit wonder with tainted love
Not sure I would want to Google Marc Almond!
In fairness they had the one enormous (cover) hit, but pretty sure they had a few other half decent ones too.
Again, feeling really old now.
Lol sorry Brighty and thanks Leon …. sounds like the perfect guy to spearhead the fanzone !
Article in the online Guardian today (nothing to do with Music). Well worth a read, particularly for those of a clichéd mindset;
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/ng-interactive/2015/sep/04/chasing-the-chariot-in-search-of-the-soul-of-english-rugby