Rugby’s future is turning female

The future of New Zealand rugby appears to be female as surging registrations from women partially offsets the decline in the number of male players. The Deloitte Sports Review: State of the Unions report released on Friday highlighted a collective decline in male player registrations for Mitre 10 Cup unions (0.1 per cent from 2016 to 2017) – driven by an 8.9 per cent drop in senior grades (21 year older and over) as they decreased by more than 2,000 registrations. Since 2010, male senior grades have decreased in size by 11 per cent. However, the women’s game is moving quickly in the opposite direction, with a staggering increase of 63.8 per cent in senior grade registrations since 2010. In fact, inspired by the feats of the world champion Black Ferns and the success of the women’s Sevens team featuring stars such as Portia Woodman, 15.1 per cent of all rugby club registrations are now female. There are now almost 20,000 registered female players in the country, twice as many as 2007. The trend was shown in the secondary school age group, with female registrations climbing by 78.6 per cent since 2010, while male registrations fell by 2264 since 2010 (down 6.5 per cent). In the under 12 age group, female player registrations have increased by 7157 (111 per cent) since 2010, dwarfing the growth in male player registrations (up 9.8 per cent) in the same period. Of concern for rugby administrators will be the statistic that none of the age groups in 2017 are greater than their 2010 figures for the combined Heartland unions. In addition, the total senior men registration numbers for both Mitre 10 Cup and Heartland unions have fallen 11.0% since 2010, with only five of the 12 Heartland unions and two of the 14 Mitre 10 Cup unions increasing in this age group. The report also showed the 2017 Lions tour helped New Zealand’s provincial unions post another record collective surplus to maintain a collectively solid financial performance from the previous year. The report showed a combined collective surplus of $3.8million – an increase from the $3.5m mark from 2016 – after the British and Irish Lions toured New Zealand for six weeks in June and July last year, although only 11 of the 14 unions posted surpluses after all 14 did so the previous year. The unions with leading revenue figures were Auckland ($15.4m), Canterbury ($8.4m), Wellington ($7.1m) and Bay of Plenty ($5.8m), while the three Mitre 10 Cup provinces not to post surpluses were Counties Manukau, Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu. Auckland’s Eden Park hosted two tests between the All Blacks and Lions in an historic series that finished 1-1, as well as one tour match when the Blues beat the Lions. ‘‘The test match fees received by the Auckland Rugby Union for hosting two of the All Black tests against the Lions at Eden Park bolstered the collective surplus for the Mitre 10 Cup unions to surpass the mark set the year before,’’ Deloitte partner Grant Jarrold said. The combined revenue of the 14 Mitre 10 Cup unions was $79.2m – a 2.8 per cent increase from $77m the previous year – as grants and sponsorships income accounted for 68.6 per cent of total revenue, as well as 10.9 per cent from match-related income and 20.4 per cent from elsewhere.