Is the Rugby Union a popular sport in Australia?

[Superalexmarket]

I was impressed to see the Perth Stadium with so few people in the game against the Pumas, the previous year on the Gold Coast something similar happened. I know that the Pumas are not a world power and therefore should not attract many people to the stadiums, but in Australia gives me the impression that Rugby Union is not so popular as I believed. Perhaps the Austalian Football, Rugby League and Cricket carried most of the public attention. Also there are not many forum members of that country, which already shows something. Despite this, Australia is among the three powers of world rugby, truly remarkable!

 

[Jaguares]

I think it's the third or fourth sport in Australia, depends on the area. I have heard that in Melbourne the most popular sport is footy (Australian Football) but for example in Queensland the most popular sport is rugby.

Rugby Union isn't a minor sport in Australia, as well as footy and rugby league are similar to rugby union, so often people in Australia supported a footy team while a rugby team, that is something common in Australia.

Rugby League and Rugby Union are very similar sports, are like brothers. People who follow rugby league also follows rugby union.

Cheers

 

[Big Ewis]

actually, their lack of depth lately has gotten me thinking about this question..I know they've got their own Australian ball game, and then other stuff...more popular than rugby.

 

[Jaguares]

actually, their lack of depth lately has gotten me thinking about this question..I know they've got their own Australian ball game, and then other stuff...more popular than rugby.

It's like in France. In southern France, rugby is very popular but in the north of France isn't. The same happens in Australia, in some cities, rugby is more popular than others.

Cheers

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

@yoe: It's not like they all of a sudden have a lack of depth. They went from 3 professional franchises in 2004 to 5 in 2011. The Force joined with the expansion to Super14 and never managed to perform properly. The Rebels, the latest addition are doing even worse. They have the same amount of top rugby players but have to divide them among 5 teams, leading to this problem. It also affects the national team because with the players being more divided, it's more difficult to get combinations going.

That, plus the other sports being more popular in League, AFL and Cricket, lead to the Wallabies underperforming.

 

[metalcommand]

As a Kiwi living in Melbourne its pretty easy to see the love of footy outweigh the rugby union supporters. Its like a underground music scene here, its there just sort of hidden a bit. I think when the Wallabies start to do well the scope will open to greater public interest here in rugby. Supporters are losing faith in their team. However the hype of footy, league, cricket isn't easy to contend with. Good to see some supporters down at the local sporting bar during this years championship.

All Blacks until the end

 

[RWC2011Fan]

I've always thought that the popularity of rugby union in Australia hinges on the performance of the national team, given the amount of competition it gets from other sports. Australia is a big country, and a sports-mad one at that, so I think the public will gravitate towards rugby union if they hear it's a big deal- Lions Tour is a good example of this, the three tests all broke attendance records at their respective venues. I don't think it'd be fair to say that rugby union is small in Australia, although test match attendances seem to drop each year (compare the attendances for NZL vs. AUS @ ANZ Stadium over the years), you have to remember they did win the world cup twice and they hold the world record for a rugby union match attendance. And despite their poor performances, it does seem like the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels have a strong set of supporters; the crowds' reaction at full time when the Force beat the Crusaders this year is a good example of this. Wallabies also seem to have really good travelling support, particularly during world cups. There always seem to be a decent number of people on those tours because you can always see the large patches of gold bunched together.

Oh, and for anyone interested, the Socceroos currently have more likes than the Wallabies on Facebook. Make of that what you will.

 

[William18]

I think it's the third or fourth sport in Australia, depends on the area. I have heard that in Melbourne the most popular sport is footy (Australian Football) but for example in Queensland the most popular sport is rugby.

Rugby Union isn't a minor sport in Australia, as well as footy and rugby league are similar to rugby union, so often people in Australia supported a footy team while a rugby team, that is something common in Australia.

Rugby League and Rugby Union are very similar sports, are like brothers. People who follow rugby league also follows rugby union.

Cheers

I strongly disagree with this. There is a fair deal of antagonism directed at rugby union from many rugby league supporters and vice-versa.

In Australia rugby union is a mainstream sport. People will follow the national team if they do well but other sports are far more popular. Even soccer is probably far more popular than rugby. They have a relatively successful national competition which is growing. This whole thing is why I thought Robbie Deans' treatment was a bit crazy. Australia has no right to be a top rugby nation in the world and Deans kept them #2 for most of his tenure.

 

[Jaguares]

Oh, and for anyone interested, the Socceroos currently have more likes than the Wallabies on Facebook. Make of that what you will.

In Twitter the difference is in favor of Wallabies:

And let me say that the community manager of Socceroos is doing a better job than the community manager of Wallabies. He's following 18,358 people while the community manager of Wallabies only following 519 people, with a better community manager, Wallabies could have more followers in Twitter.

Cheers

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

That probably includes a lot of overseas Australians who have been following the Wallabies for decades while the Socceroos have never really had anything noteworthy regarding achievements to draw more fans.

In Australia itself, there are more football teams than RU teams which accounts for the domestic popularity

 

[RWC2011Fan]

Do the Aussies still sing Waltzing Matilda?

 

[Jaguares]

That probably includes a lot of overseas Australians who have been following the Wallabies for decades while the Socceroos have never really had anything noteworthy regarding achievements to draw more fans.

In Australia itself, there are more football teams than RU teams which accounts for the domestic popularity

In South Africa there are also more soccer teams than rugby teams? Always said that in South Africa soccer is the sport of black people and rugby is the sport of white people. If there more blacks than whites, then soccer should be more popular than rugby, right?

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Yes, yes and yes.

 

[smartcooky]

....Australia is a big country....

Yes it is, and I get the impression sometimes, talking to people on this forum, and on others, that some of them don't quite get just how big it is....

 

[Feicarsinn]

Yeah, but Europe is pretty small on a global scale, particularly if you leave out European Russia, The Ukraine and Belarus.

 

[smartcooky]

Yeah, but Europe is pretty small on a global scale, particularly if you leave out European Russia, The Ukraine and Belarus.

True, but I think the issue about the difficulty in running an Australian national rugby competition is well made when you see the map. The travel costs would be a killer financially.

 

[Aspry]

True, but I think the issue about the difficulty in running an Australian national rugby competition is well made when you see the map. The travel costs would be a killer financially.

Poor Perth

 

[Patchey]

Regional conferences like in NFL? Just a thought.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Conrad: I know that League isn't really popular in Argentina, so you can be forgiven for not knowing mutch about it. But in general most Union and League fans hate the other code, there is a huge amount of rivalry for some people.

 

[Big Ewis]

Yeah, but Europe is pretty small on a global scale, particularly if you leave out European Russia, The Ukraine and Belarus.

and yeh, not impressed with the Australia with Europe inside of it map picture. You could probably fit it 100x in North America..
Impressive in retrospect, isn't it, that we've dominated the world being so few.....