Jun 1 / Sport

Rivalries and passion - what NZ rugby can learn from Origin

Opinion - We're rolling into the Super Rugby Pacific's last regular season round, but while the match-ups are juicy, the focus this week for most fans is where it's been for the past couple of decades: on State Of Origin.

While I'm sick of the comparisons to league and especially the soap opera of Origin, and all the negativity towards rugby in our media, and I personally have enjoyed the majority of the rugby this year, I fully agree with this part of the article:

*In fact, the Hurricanes haven't even tweeted in almost a month while the Crusaders have simply listed a team sheet.

There have been plenty of grumblings from the Super Rugby teams' bosses over the negative coverage that the competition has had this year, and some of that discontent is fair enough.

But you must do something to get fans engaged other than just play good rugby. There's an entire undercurrent of sentiment to be stoked with this match, an entire stadium to be filled.

You don't need a massive advertising budget to tell your people that the team that is coming to town is there to be disliked, booed and jeered. Or that your own team is to be cheered, supported and invested in.

You just need people to do their jobs. The Hurricanes and Crusaders is a rivalry between two places that don't like each other anyway - it's not hard.*

Wasn't the whole idea of privatising the commercial arm of the franchises so that they would be able to better promote games as they'd have financial incentives to do so?

How can they not all employ competent social media managers? I could hire one from my friends group who has never been to a rugby match in her life and she could run it better than the chumps the franchises seem to employ.

Edit: I couldn't find the quote button, and the italic button seems to not work. The text between the * is from the article.

The Silver Fern

Nepia