Playing numbers per union

profitius

I thought this was interesting having seen it on another forum.

Rugby unions according to www.irb.com of top teams

Total Male Players:

England 2531705
South Africa 614787
France 302023
Ireland 140716
New Zealand 126146
Australia 85283
Italy 61432
Wales 49226
Scotland 36237
Samoa 18761


Senior Male Players:

England 166762
France 110270
South Africa 109878
Australia 39380
New Zealand 27374
Ireland 25440
Wales 22408
Italy 15848
Scotland 11687
Samoa 7690


Teen Male Players:

England 1545233
South Africa 193411
Ireland 57867
France 50651
New Zealand 39317
Australia 19239
Italy 17220
Scotland 15009
Wales 14500
Samoa 1792


Pre-teen Male Players:

England 819710
South Africa 311498
France 141102
New Zealand 59455
Ireland 57409
Italy 28364
Australia 26664
Wales 12318
Scotland 9541
Samoa 9279

The most accurate figures are the senior male players.

From an Irish point of view the teen male players is very promising. I don't know how accurate those things are but if it is accurate we're in for a bright future. They could be including touch rugby etc in that though.

jacothelad

profitius wrote: »

I thought this was interesting having seen it on another forum.



The most accurate figures are the senior male players.

From an Irish point of view the teen male players is very promising. I don't know how accurate those things are but if it is accurate we're in for a bright future. They could be including touch rugby etc in that though.

Most of those figures are rubbish. It seems that according to them, 10 % of all primary school children in Ireland are active rugby players. Total bilge.

Then there are the other figures. There are 204 rugby clubs in Ireland. Those figures mean on average that there are 125 senior players and 281 teen players attached to each club. There are a few clubs that might have 405 active playing members but I don't know of many. Even a big club like Belfast Harlequins only puts out 4 teams these days plus 3 under age groups. I think those figures are either a figment of someones fevered imagination, or, concocted by someone to prove they are doing their job, or, contain the names of every player who has had a playing membership of any club since about 1970.

durkadurka

jacothelad wrote: »

Most of those figures are rubbish. It seems that every primary school child in Ireland is an active rugby player.

Well 57000 would be about one in seven Primary school boys and frankly I don't believe that.

Loads of kids only take it up in secondary school. Even the 57000 teen players is unbelievable. That's about one in five teen boys.

I went to a medium ranked rugby school and only about one in three played rugby there ....


Edit:
Link below to schoolgoers in the republic. If you divide by two to eliminate girls and generously add 50% to factor in the north, you're talking about 370,000 primary boys and 270,000 secondary boys in total on this island. To suggest 115000 of these play rugby is frankly unbelievable.

http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/stat_web_stats_10_11.pdf

ormond lad

These are the playing numbers from the 09-10 IRFU annual report if you want to compare them
Senior Males
7,056 U
5,923 M
10,154 L
2,307 C
25,440 2010
24,377 2009
Senior Women
744 U
751 M
1,140 L
129 C
2,764 2010
2,491 2009
Age Grade (Club)
4,231 U
9,125 M
11,778 L
4,969 C
30,103 2010
26,270 2009
Mini Rugby
4,767 U
6,938 M
10,995 L
1,902 C
24,602 2010
24,981 2009
Total Club Numbers
16,798 U
22,737 M
34,067 L
9,307 C
82,909 2010
78,119 2009
School Rugby Programmes
Age Grade (Secondary schools)
U:11,750 M:4,910 L:11,516 C:2,288 2010:30,464 2009:31,270
School Development Programme
U:9,945 M:8,795 L:16,184 C:4,783 2010:39,707 2009:49,362
Total Participants (School & Club) 38,493 36,442 61,767 16,378 153,080 159,263

durkadurka

While I'm at it I would suggest that the ratios above are only barely true in south Dublin, where rugby is at it's strongest , of which I have some knowledge.

There are vast swathes of the country where rugby is barely played.

roycon

ive seen several of these down the years and the only category where ireland have ever appeared above 6/7th place is schoolboy rugby. in terms of adult players argentina are usually ahead of ireland and in every single category wales have usually been ranked ahead of ireland

mrboswell

Anyone have figures on the number of professionals from each country?
I would be very interested to see those figures.

nc6000

I thought Japan had the most players? Maybe the IRB do not include them in the list of "Top Teams".

ormond lad

nc6000 wrote: »

I thought Japan had the most players? Maybe the IRB do not include them in the list of "Top Teams".

Japan has 121543 reg players according to the IRB website which would be behind england, france, south africa, ireland, new zealand

vinny chase

durkadurka wrote: »

While I'm at it I would suggest that the ratios above are only barely true in south Dublin, where rugby is at it's strongest , of which I have some knowledge.

There are vast swathes of the country where rugby is barely played.

I agree with you in principle, and have always thought those figures were off wherever I've seen them.

But, to be honest, rugby is growing into new parts of the country. I always laughed when I went to Connacht games in the Sportsground and the teams of young lads playing tag at half time are from places like Leitrim, Carna in Connemara, the wilds of Mayo somewhere or places like Roscommon and even Donegal!

profitius

ormond lad wrote: »

These are the playing numbers from the 09-10 IRFU annual report if you want to compare them

Senior Males
25,440 - 2010
24,377 - 2009

Age Grade (Club)
30,103 - 2010
26,270 - 2009

Mini Rugby
24,602 - 2010
24,981 - 2009

Total Club Numbers
82,909 - 2010
78,119 - 2009

School Rugby Programmes
Age Grade (Secondary schools)
30,464 - 2010
31,270 - 2009

School Development Programme
39,707 - 2010
49,362 - 2009

Total Participants (School & Club)
153,080 - 2010
159,263 - 2009

You can see by those figures the effect the grandslam had on rugby in non traditional schools. Thousands of more kids wanted to play it. A good world cup will boost playing numbers again.

Overall, taking 2009 out of it, theres been a steady rise in numbers with club rugby being more consistant.

theboss80

Interesting from USA Today report

Traditionally, football and other more popular sports siphon potential American rugby players away from the game, but much has changed in U.S. rugby since the last World Cup.
More children — 350,000 last year, according to USA Rugby— are playing as schools begin programs now that the sport is back in the Olympics as rugby sevens (beginning in 2016 in Brazil). USA Rugby says general membership is at 98,000, up about 6.5% since 2010.

Numbers definitely on the rise there. 7's seems to be drawing in the numbers at college level