Author: Benson Hendrix

Benson Hendrix, APR has been called everything from a “social media zen warrior” to the ” ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper of Public Relations,” and from a “behind the scenes powerbroker,” to “the loudmouth PR love child of Henry Rollins and Anthony Bourdain,” but doesn’t really believe any of it (except maybe the “Rowdy” Roddy Piper part). Hendrix is the Digital Media Manager for the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and loves helping organizations and people tell the stories that are important to them. He is also an adjunct social media instructor at the University of New Mexico, and the Social Media Strategist for TEDxABQ. In the few minutes a week he calls "spare time," he relaxes with his wife and chases his dream to be a better photographer.

Irish Rugby Doubles Down on Pricing

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According to this report from Scrum.com and from the Irish Times, the Ireland Rugby Union is sticking firm to its plan to sell tickets to the national team’s November test matches against South Africa, Samoa, Argentina and New Zealand only as a pack – not individually.

Quote from Scrum.com:

“(M)eaning that those wishing to attend the games at the redeveloped Lansdowne Road venue would have to fork out a grand total of €340 (£280).”

 

I understand the need for Irish Rugby to keep money coming in, especially since Rugby is (according to the IRFU) the only truly professional sport in the nation, and still has to compete with soccer, Gaelic Football and other sports for fans.  But not to offer tickets to individual games instead of the entire block of matches is a bad plan, because some people aren’t going to want to see all of those games and others can probably afford to go to one game, but not all of them (The Irish Times also points out that this is a 21% increase over tickets from last year) It’s not a good way to bolster fan support in the building to the 2011 Rugby World Cup, especially in an economic crunch.

This comes in the middle of a public relations campaign to resist proposals by the Irish Government to allow Six Nations and Heineken Cup games to be shown over the air for free.  Will this strategy work for the short or long term for Irish Rugby? We’ll find out.

 

 

 

 

 

All Blacks Set to Win Tri Nations in “Soccer City”

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The New Zealand All Blacks are on the verge of winning the 2010 Tri Nations tournament today, facing off yet again with the South Africa RFU Springboks in South Africa’s “Soccer City” – the new stadium built in Soweto for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Can the All Blacks survive in a stadium packed with 90,000 rabid Springbok fans?  That’s a stadium size usually seen in Rugby World Cup finals matches.

Can the Springboks bounce back from what must have been a disappointing start to the 2010 Tri Nations campaign?

Will the recent complaining by the Springboks about “uneven refereeing patterns” and the yearly threat to leave SANZAR finally play out on the field?

These questions, and more, to be answered soon fellow ruggers!

 

South Africa Works the Refs in Phase 2 – Springboks Threaten to Quit SANZAR?

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In a move that smacks of “taking our ball and going home since we can’t get our own way,” multiple media outlets are reporting that the South African RFU is looking to end the SANZAR relationship with themselves, New Zealand and Australian rugby unions. 

Money graphs from the Sydney Morning Herald:

This year the Springboks management have complained throughout the Tri Nations about the way referees were officiating them and the All Blacks.

There was also unrest when SANZAR pushed ahead with a misconduct hearing against Springboks coach Peter de Villiers, who said referees wanted the All Blacks to get winning results to help make next year’s World Cup a success.

When Sanzar ordered a the hearing it sent SARU president Oregan Hoskins into such a rage that he called it a “declaration of war”.
Let me say it now, if nothing else this is a really bad PR move. It does look like the South Africans are upset that the All Blacks and Australians are beating them in this year’s Tri Nations and that de Villiers was called before a SANZAR official for claiming that the officials are giving the New Zealand All Blacks an unfair advantage in order to build up more attendance at next year’s Rugby World Cup. Of course let’s also not forget that South Africa tried this last year as well, before being coaxed to back down from the ledge.  And this is really funny when you consider that SANZAR asked Argentina to join them starting in 2011. So are we going to have to call them ArgNZAR from here on out?

And far be it for me, a “New Mexico Yank in King Arthur’s Scrum” to point it out (but I will anyway) that SANZAR was partially formed in response to the push for rugby professionalism in the mid-90s.  SANZAR won the fight to take charge of professional rugby in the three most important rugby nations in the Southern Hemisphere, and now South Africa is threatening to leave their competition with two of the best teams in rugby in order to… what?

Rumor has it that the Springboks might want to switch over and turn the Six Nations into Seven Nations, since they are in more or less the same time zone as Europe.  This does make sense from a timing standpoint, and has always been a problem for New Zealand and Australia – since there are really no Northern Hemisphere teams in their time zones that can provide a challenge for them.  That said, if this were the reason for wanting to switch, South Africa picked a really bad time to announce it – cause it looks like they are doing this out of spite for not getting their way with SANZAR in this year’s Tri Nations.

Is Rugby Union in Danger of “Capping” Itself? (Part 1 of 2)

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This thought occurred to me as I cooked dinner tonight and read this story from the New Zealand Herald.  In Australia, originally thought of as a hotbed for rugby (and it still is) rugby is the fourth most watched sport in the country. falling short to Aussie Rules Football, Rugby League and Soccer.  

This got me thinking, in a lot of nations rugby is a very popular sport, but it’s not the most popular. It doesn’t have the impact in Australia or Great Britain that, say, American Football has in America.  It’s still an incredibly popular sport, but it’s not quite as popular as soccer, or even cricket in some parts of the world. 

I also started thinking that because of rugby’s provincial background, coming from the schools for “upper class” kids, or in the case of South Africa, a very definitive white-black divide between rugby and soccer (remember the scene from Invictus where the two security officers, one white and one black, discussed Soccer vs. Rugby? The white security officer was talking soccer down and the African officer was having none of it.)

You see this is true today in the United States as well, as those who see themselves as the ‘true arbiters’ of the sport and pooh-pooh most things coming from USA Rugby tend to be from Berkeley, California (home of the perennial champion University of California Bears – more on why they don’t want change in a later post), or the east coast, another bastion of this schoolhouse mentality to rugby.

This upper class mentality led to a split in rugby in the 19th century, between rugby union (which is most of what I write about here) which was played by the upper classes and rugby league, played by working class players and becoming a professional league many many years before Union picked up on it.  The reason being was that if players were not being paid, then those that were hurt playing the game had no income to replace what they would lose by missing work. 

This didn’t impact upper class and “professional” professions (barrister, banker, etc) because they didn’t rely on their backs to make money. But for the players who would eventually become league players, they were the working class – the coal miners, the farmers, the people who couldn’t afford to play without getting a level of compensation. Thus led to one of the first splits of rugby, thanks to a class on class struggle. And you’re seeing this split occur in places like Australia where League appears to be more popular than Rugby Union, and in England, the home of both codes of Rugby. 

(as an aside, I remember visiting my dad in Texas and watching Rugby on ESPN late in the evening back in the 90’s, and even back then the games they were showing were League games, not Rugby Union)

Previously I extolled the virtues of the love of Rugby in New Zealand, as this N.Z. Herald story points out, Australia has about five times the population of New Zealand, which brings a lot more sponsorship and salary dollars to the Aussie’s National Rugby League than the Australian contingent of the Australian-New Zealand-South African Super 14 competition. 

In the long run, this could decimate the game of rugby, relegating it to a third or fourth popular sport in many nations unless something is done to change it.

And what can be done to boost rugby’s image in not only the traditional rugby powers but also in other parts of the world? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

 

Quinnipiac strikes a blow for NCAA Women’s Rugby!

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In what could turn out to be a big step forward for rugby in the United States, Quinnipiac University announced a plan to add women’s rugby to the school’s athletics program to meet the school’s Title IX compliance.

For those readers who don’t know, Title IX is a federal requirement that mandates that athletics programs offer an equal number of sports scholarship programs for male and female athletes.  Since American Football tends to take up so many scholarship places in an athletics program, universities usually scramble to find enough women’s sports to balance the scholarship scales. Quinnipiac originally tried to claim cheerleading as a sport but U.S. District Court denied that, so in order to better meet the requirements of Title IX they are adding women’s rugby and golf as varsity sports.

This is an opening for rugby that I’ve seen for a while.  While many ruggers and former ruggers wanted to see men’s and women’s rugby available in colleges, men’s rugby was never going to really become a varsity sport – outside of a few unique university programs such as California. But women’s rugby, which is now considered an “emerging” NCAA sport, has had an opening for a long time since so many colleges are looking for ways to balance out the impact of America Football. 

Too few universities have taken advantage of adding 35-40 women’s athletes to an athletic department – instead they have slashed men’s sports such as gymnastics or wrestling.  Women’s and men’s rugby clubs and local unions should be contacting the NCAA and their local universities and colleges to push for women’s rugby to be included as part of their programs. This will also open up a lot of positions for collegiate rugby coaches and assistant coaches. 

Sorry guys, but you’re screwed on this little deal. Blame it on the Dallas Cowboys.

One Way to Build Youth Rugby in the U.S.

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A lot of teams in the U.S. are doing this, I’m sure – but according to the Edinburgh Rugby Web site the “Black and Red Army” has been handing out Edinburgh-branded rugby kits (gear, uniforms, etc for the Rugby-lingo challenged among the readership here) to volunteers who help out with youth rugby teams in Scotland.

It’s not a lot of additional cost, especially if you are ordering new jerseys every year or two, but if you start to connect your club with a local high school, or other youth rugby club, it might be worth it to invest in some additional gear that the coaching staff might be able to take to their own home games and sport on the sideline, or to help the team with some additional sponsorship fundraising in addition to your own.  Especially if you’re one of the high-level teams playing in the U.S. right now.

How Much Rugby Cash Does Ford Have?

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I stumbled across this article from the Scottish RFU Web site this evening – Ford has renewed their sponsorship commitment as the “official vehicle supplier” of Scottish Rugby in a six-figure deal.

Ford has also been the sponsor of many of the New Zealand Super 12 teams throughout the years – as those of us who proudly wear one (or many) Super 12 jerseys can attest, with a big Ford symbol emblazoned across the front.

So a few questions immediately come to mind:

1. Exactly how much cash does Ford have for sponsorships, and where does this money come from?

2. Why can’t the USA Eagles get their hands on some of this Ford sponsorship cash (supporting the home team, ya know 🙂 )

And finally….

3. Would Ford be interested in sponsoring an up-and-coming Rugby news blog/video site (coming soon!) by any chance? (come on Scott Monty, you know y’all want to… 🙂 ) (that’s me, always working the social media angles) 

De Villiers Update: Boks Coach Avoid “Blabbergate” Punishment

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This in from iAfrica today – South African Springboks coach Peter De Villiers, who was brought before a SANZAR review board for recently working the refs… er, recent comments he made regarding the level of IRB officiating in the Tri Nations, found out that SANZAR dropped any charges of alleging that there was referee chicanery going on.  This is good for De Villiers and the Springboks, as they can’t handle many more Springboks going on the suspended list for the tournament.

However, South African RFU president Oregan Hoskins found out he might be under investigation himself for he recent statement that any questioning of what De Villiers said was tantamount to a “declaration of war” against the South African Rugby Union, and the Springboks themselves by the rest of the Rugby Universe.

Hey, whatever it takes for you to get the Springboks ready to reverse that 0-for-the-Tri Nations record you’ve racked up so far this summer.

As for De Villiers, might I recommend, from my position as a public relations professional, that SARFU figure out a way to keep him away from reporters. Hire a spokesman (hey, for all of the grief I’ve given the Springboks I’m still available to speak to the media), appoint someone to keep him busy when the media show up, whatever it takes to keep him from making statements like this on the record.

 

Do the All Blacks Have an Unfair Advantage in the Tri Nations?

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According to a recent report on Scrum, South African Springbok head coach, and overworked mouthpiece, Peter De Villiers, hinted that the New Zealand All Blacks have an advantage over Australia and the Springboks.  Not that they are a better team, but the referees, the Rugby Unions and probably the International Rugby Board are all part of a conspiracy to maneuver the All Blacks into a stronger position to help bolster the attendance at next year’s Rugby World Cup. (Yeah, like people need an excuse to go to New Zealand, home of the Lord of the Rings.  And as if rugby fans need any additional reason to go to the hotbed of Rugby)

De Villiers is quoted in the article:

“I’ve got my own observations about the last two tests [against New Zealand], and I can’t say it in public,” he said on July 21. “But we do have a World Cup in New Zealand next year, and maybe it was the right thing for them to win the games so they can attract more people to the games next year.”

In the U.S., this is what we call “working the refs.” Where an official or two from another team start to complain in the media that they are not getting enough calls their way in big games, or that their opponents are getting an unfair advantage.  Los Angeles Laker basketball coach Phil Jackson is a master of this kind of complaining (In fact it’s one reason Jackson was given his moniker, “The Zen Master.” Not just because of his “holistic” coaching style or spiritual beliefs, but because he’s the only NBA coach who can be up 3-1 in a playoff series and get away with complaining about the refs targeting his team.)

The idea behing this is, if you can force the idea of favoritism in the referees mind, then the next time you play that opponent the ref might take care to make a couple of extra calls in your favor to “balance the ledger” from their alleged favoritism in previous games.  You also get the added bonus of the ref thinking twice about making legitimate calls against you – so you get more of an advantage.  It’s probably as old as sports, in fact athletes in the ancient Olympics were probably doing the same thing. 

So what’s the problem, you ask?  If everyone’s doing it then it should be expected.  

It’s planting an idea in the ref’s subconscious, trying to get through to him in a less than honorable way that your team is the victim of a conspiracy that bothers me. I accept that at the end of the day there has to be a winner and a loser on the pitch, and recently the karma has bounced New Zealand’s way.  Just like last year South Africa was near unstoppable. It’s not the ref’s fault that Bakkies Botha decided to go all “Hulk Hogan” in the first few minutes of game one in New Zealand. It’s not the ref’s fault that South Africa couldn’t figure out an answer to shut down an even more determined All Black team the following week, or that took it hard to Australia when they faced off.  These problems are on the Springboks and Wallabies respectively.

I’m sure readers of the Gonzo Report/Rugby Cafe/whatever I end up calling this 😉 might think I have a slight dislike of South Africa, and nothing could be further from the truth. They are, and have been, one of the best teams in the world. I just wish they would stop playing the role of victim/thug-a-licious rugger long enough to get back to basics and focus on the game they get paid handsomely to play. They remind me of the boxer who has the skill and conviction to be a champion, but still feel like they have to fight dirty to win. And South African RFU president Oregan Hoskins had better take note of that and see what he can do to help turn this around.

If the All Blacks do have an advantage in the Tri Nations, it’s due to passion – not chicanery. And the Springboks better dig down and find their own passion before this tournament is over.

ESPN Announces Premiership Rugby Broadcast Schedule

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Rugby fans, you can rejoice a little bit – even though Setanta Sports appears to be vanishing from the U.S. rugby TV media-sphere, ESPN recently announced their 2010-2011 Aviva Premiership Rugby broadcast schedule.  The Aviva Premiership features many of the top professional teams in European rugby.

ESPN’s coverage kicks off with a London-based doubleheader, featuring Saracens against the London Irish, followed by Wasps and the aptly-named Harlequins, who might actually be able to focus on playing rugby now that they have finished faking injuries like they were soccer players or something.

The complete schedule can be located here.