Rugby Expo

Oceania Rugby held a rugby expo at Grand Pacific Hotel during the Oceania National Olympic Committee (ONOC) meeting last Friday. The main reason was to highlight World Rugby investment programmes and also showcase what is available through Olympic Solidarity.

Rugby Expo

Rugby is currently experiencing unprecedented global growth, popularity and interest. Approximately 7.2 million men, women and children are playing the game worldwide and the rugby family continues to grow around the world.

This growth received an added boost following the IOC decision in 2009 to readmit rugby into the sports programme of the Summer Olympic Games Rugby sevens to be contested at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games in the build-up to its long awaited full Olympic Games debut at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

In the Oceania region, there are 12 registered unions including Fiji with an estimated number of 1,026,426 players.

One of the key strategic goals of the World Rugby’s Strategic Plan 2010-20 is to optimize Olympic participation. Among a range of key performance indicators to measure the success of this goal is that support from Olympic bodies and governments is increased.

Rugby is eligible for Olympic Solidarity support. The Olympic Solidarity’s aim is to organize assistance for all the NOCs, particularly those with the greatest needs, so that they can develop their own structures to support the expansion of sport in their country.

Since the launch of the 2013-16 quadrennial, an excess of US$1.5m of Olympic Solidarity funding has been allocated to more than 50 countries for rugby projects worldwide. Opportunities available for rugby are:-

• Technical Courses for coaches;
• Team Support Grants;
• Development of National Sports Structures
• Olympic Scholarships for Coaches
• Continental/Regional Association project funding

Meanwhile, World Rugby’s annual investment is driven by management through annual operations plans and budgets which are guided by the World Rugby Strategic Plan 2010-2020 and sub-plans. Investment priorities are:-

• Player Welfare (Training and Education)
• Development
• High Performance and Competitions (15s)
• High Performance and Competitions (Sevens)
• Revenue Generation
• Regulations (Support Operations)
• Inspiration (Support operations)

The Rugby World Cup tournament is the commercial and financial vehicle that drives World Rugby Investment in the global Game; supplying more than 90 per cent of World Rugby’s revenue from broadcast, sponsorship and other commercial income. The phenomenal success of recent editions of the tournament, now firmly established as a prestigious global brand has enabled investment at all levels from grass roots participation to elite high performance.

On top of RWC income, World Rugby negotiates broadcast and sponsorship agreements for other events including its men’s and women’s sevens series and in addition uses its reserves from time to time to smooth investments levels and help fund core Game investment programmes.

Their investments included Fiji hosting the Rugby Pacific Challenge in March this year.