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In recent articles about Tag on the RFL site we seemed to be moving in the right direction as regards terminology.

All come to a shuddering halt with their latest effort headlined "Play Tag Rugby on the famous Odsal pitch", in which the RFL renew their commitment to make RL invisible. There isn`t a single mention of "Tag Rugby League", everything is Rugby Rugby Rugby.

Starting to think X-League might be a preferable option. That is if they can prevent the RFL from re-branding it as X-Rugby.

Perhaps also underlines the advantages of embracing 11-a-side League Tag as distinct from Oztag/TTR.

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3 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

In recent articles about Tag on the RFL site we seemed to be moving in the right direction as regards terminology.

All come to a shuddering halt with their latest effort headlined "Play Tag Rugby on the famous Odsal pitch", in which the RFL renew their commitment to make RL invisible. There isn`t a single mention of "Tag Rugby League", everything is Rugby Rugby Rugby.

Starting to think X-League might be a preferable option. That is if they can prevent the RFL from re-branding it as X-Rugby.

Perhaps also underlines the advantages of embracing 11-a-side League Tag as distinct from Oztag/TTR.

You really are an unapologetic pedant 😂 I've said before it really doesn't matter what it's called as long as people are picking up a rugby ball 

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2 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

You really are an unapologetic pedant 😂 I've said before it really doesn't matter what it's called as long as people are picking up a rugby ball 

No it does matter, in fact in a country like yours where League plays second fiddle to union it matters enormously.

Pages and pages and countless threads on this forum talk about Leagues struggles to break-out of its` Northern working class demographic, Touch/Tag Rugby League one of the most accessible forms of the sport for breaking out of that stereotype into new regions failure to properly identify itself as an off-shoot of League would not only be criminal but sheer lunacy.

I imagine a lot of people who play probably wouldn`t know what code their Touch/Tag originates from, it would be the same here in Oz, letting them assume it`s union, by referring to it as rugby would be sheer folly.

 

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This is a great time and a perfect chance to drive home the England Touch and rugby league elements of touch. 

The other mob have lost lots of clubs and opportunity with their stupid touch union rules. I don't know of any club who wants to totally change the way they play. 

The rules should be set, the shape of the game is aligned to league. Let's push that home.

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Fancy a game of touch in Cambs or Lincs? DM me 

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4 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:

You really are an unapologetic pedant 😂 I've said before it really doesn't matter what it's called as long as people are picking up a rugby ball 

Yes, there`s an intrinsic value in people playing Tag Rugby League, but I`m looking at it from the point of view of building the fanbase.

The aim of Pepsi is not to get more people drinking Cola, irrespective of the brand.

If the effect of Pepsi-Cola`s marketing were more people drinking Coca-Cola, their advertising agency wouldn`t win many awards.

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5 hours ago, jacobus said:

This is a great time and a perfect chance to drive home the England Touch and rugby league elements of touch. 

The other mob have lost lots of clubs and opportunity with their stupid touch union rules. I don't know of any club who wants to totally change the way they play. 

The rules should be set, the shape of the game is aligned to league. Let's push that home.

I`ve heard about those rule changes from afar and that they were specifically driven by an attempt to clarify that their Touch originated from union. It made me wonder at the time whether there had been complaints from the ` rugby` fraternity that what they were playing resembled too much that other code. It also suggests to me a lurking fear of League and the desire not to give it any chance of a leg-up at all.

Either way, there are moments in life when opportunities arise that can offer disproportionate rewards for the effort put in, in this case where the audience would be most receptive to their message.

From what you are saying is happening on the ground, this is one of those moments.

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6 hours ago, jacobus said:

This is a great time and a perfect chance to drive home the England Touch and rugby league elements of touch. 

The other mob have lost lots of clubs and opportunity with their stupid touch union rules. I don't know of any club who wants to totally change the way they play. 

The rules should be set, the shape of the game is aligned to league. Let's push that home.

 

10 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:

You really are an unapologetic pedant 😂 I've said before it really doesn't matter what it's called as long as people are picking up a rugby ball 

I`m not fully au fait with recent moves by Touch Union, but like @The Rocket I`m assuming the motivation is proprietorial.

The RFU are not a public body promoting health and fitness. Their primary concern is the health and well-being of Rugby Union. Non-contact forms are embraced or not with that purpose in mind.

The RFU want anyone "picking up a Rugby ball" to become a Rugby Union fan. Nothing wrong with that. I would prefer anyone "picking up a Rugby ball" to become a Rugby League fan. Nothing wrong with that either. It`s just a bit odd that the RFL want people to become fans of "Rugby".

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There was an interview in yesterday`s Guardian with Mark Evans, former CEO of Melbourne Storm, Saracens, and Harlequins. 

A number of good quotes, one in particular leapt out. It covers themes relevant to many other threads. I`m posting here due to the participation reference. -

"But if you`re spending a disproportionate percentage of your revenue on the playing department, you have nothing left to invest in growth. You`re just keeping the lights on.

If you rely on your professional teams to do your development work and don`t have the money to do it, you are in serious trouble.

We all tend to go and watch the games we played, so if your participation numbers seriously diminish, like in Australian RU, over a 20-30 year period your audience disappears. And if that happens you`re toast".

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And this is the key, get them playing any version of the sport as a 5 year old.

Junior rugby league grants to celebrate 20-year milestone - NRL

To mark their 20th consecutive year as naming rights partner, Telstra will award a grant of $5,000 to the junior Club of each player in the Grand Final winning team. NRL Chief Executive Andrew Abdo said the value of Telstra's partnership to the game was highlighted by their contribution to all parts of Rugby League.

"Every player in tomorrow night's Grand Final started at a junior rugby league club. Participation is so important to us, whether it be touch, tag or tackle and the Commission is committed to creating the largest sports community in Australia."

So heartening to see Touch and Tag being mentioned in the same sentence as Tackle, it has to be viewed as all the one sport.

 

 

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:

The Try Tag nationals are being streamed on the Try Tag Facebook page

https://m.facebook.com/trytagrugby?s=09

Also on OurLeague later on 

Which means TTR followers without a previous connection to RL will have to set up an Our League account to watch the later games. Unusually smart move from the RFL.

The weather hasn`t been kind for the games today, but the standard still looks pretty good.

Edited by unapologetic pedant
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7 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Which means TTR followers without a previous connection to RL will have to set up an Our League account to watch the later games. Unusually smart move from the RFL.

Having said that, I have an account but I`m currently getting no joy trying to find the livestream. Might be me, but things often don`t work as promised on the RFL site.

The weather hasn`t been kind for the games today.

You’d think all people involve in RL one way or another would have an Our League account by now?  

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56 minutes ago, Spidey said:

You’d think all people involve in RL one way or another would have an Our League account by now?  

It`s a long way from certain that people playing "Tag Rugby" in London and the South-East see themselves as involved in Rugby League. Up until recently it hadn`t occurred to the RFL to see them in that light.

The above point is the predominant theme of this whole thread.

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4 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

It`s a long way from certain that people playing "Tag Rugby" in London and the South-East see themselves as involved in Rugby League. Up until recently it hadn`t occurred to the RFL to see them in that light.

The above point is the predominant theme of this whole thread.

Maybe now they’ll actually realise it’s an RFL run activity

and now being exposed to Out League will open them up to other parts of the game

Isnt that the point of these formats of the game?

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12 hours ago, The Rocket said:

 Participation is so important to us, whether it be touch, tag or tackle and the Commission is committed to creating the largest sports community in Australia."

This looks like the NRL are strengthening their bid for rhetorical ownership of non-contact forms. Similar motivation to the Touch Union`s ill-advised and hopefully ill-fated move in England.

They clearly realize RL will never become "the largest sports community in Australia" with Tackle RL alone.

The NRL could incorporate aspects of the history of Touch and Tag in their general RL promotion. - Highlighting how Touch began as a League training drill and was codified at South Sydney Juniors, and celebrating the role of Perry Haddock in devising OzTag as a means for RL players to maintain their fitness and skill levels during the off-season. Emphasizing the point that these forms are integral to our game past and present.

As usual, League Tag does it best. All the leagues and clubs that run LT hand out their Tackle and Tag awards as part of the same event.

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On 03/10/2021 at 10:37, unapologetic pedant said:

This looks like the NRL are strengthening their bid for rhetorical ownership of non-contact forms. Similar motivation to the Touch Union`s ill-advised and hopefully ill-fated move in England.

Now this is how you own an event.

NRL 2021: Titans, Gold Coast Titans All Schools Touch gets underway today - Titans

Gold Coast Titans All Schools Touch gets underway today.

With over 450 teams representing various schools both nationally and internationally the five day tournament is set to bring thousands to the coast with over 1,700 games across 23 fields at the Gold Coast Performance Centre in Runaway Bay.

The relocation, facilitated by Major Events Gold Coast, will ensure the carnival will be played at the magnificent Runaway Bay venue for the next three years, alongside naming rights partner, the Gold Coast Titans.

The Titans will be present across the week with a focus on Friday and Saturday.

 

One day all Rugby League clubs will run tournaments like this. That`s the way to engage the kids and their families.

 

 
 
Edited by The Rocket
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2 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Now this is how you own an event.

NRL 2021: Titans, Gold Coast Titans All Schools Touch gets underway today - Titans

Gold Coast Titans All Schools Touch gets underway today.

When the NRL linked with Touch Football Australia a few years back, which is when all these integration efforts date from, there were attempts to introduce a PTB. From what I`ve seen of the NRL Touch comp, those attempts must have been abandoned,

Probably the right move. Once an off-field alignment takes place, organisationally and with shared branding, there`s enough in Touch on the field for it to evoke RL in the popular mind without a proper PTB. And changing what thousands of players were used to was always a tall order.

Non-contact players who prefer the structure that comes with a PTB will choose Tag. And many will play both.

During the TTR nationals last Saturday virtually all the PTBs were legal i.e. ball played with the foot. Despite that, the London TTR bloke said "rollball" a couple of times, which just shows how disconnected from UK RL the London and South-East TTR game was until fairly recently.

It still amazes me that thousands of people could have been playing a non-contact form of RL in the South of England for so long with the RFL apparently oblivious. Well, actually it doesn`t amaze me. But it is amazing.

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100%.

We are an hour north of London but well outside of the RL heartlands. 

We took the RFU O2 money to get started but now the England touch rules are embedded in our players (some of whom have been with us since the age of 3 or 4) we won't be changing to the union laws. 

But in terms of ideas and support and opportunities, we hear nothing. 

We have and have had a number of players who would be good at league but there is nowhere for them to go and only me telling them how good a sport it is. 

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Fancy a game of touch in Cambs or Lincs? DM me 

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13 minutes ago, jacobus said:

100%.

We are an hour north of London but well outside of the RL heartlands. 

We took the RFU O2 money to get started but now the England touch rules are embedded in our players (some of whom have been with us since the age of 3 or 4) we won't be changing to the union laws. 

But in terms of ideas and support and opportunities, we hear nothing. 

We have and have had a number of players who would be good at league but there is nowhere for them to go and only me telling them how good a sport it is. 

Absolutely *#!*!^ing tragic, and meanwhile they are short 20 000 for the bloody GF.

Edited by The Rocket
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  • 4 weeks later...

Australian sports participation figures for 2020 - 2021 released today. The mob that conducts the survey for the first time decided to include a cumulative figure for Rugby League, OzTag and Touch as well as individually. That`s the way it should be forever more.

Soccer 1 205 000

Basketball 989 600

League,  RL Touch & RL OzTag  653 500

afl  621 500

Netball 594 000

The tackle version of League was 167 000, 400 000 Touch players and the balance OzTag.

Another interesting point was female participation with Tackle League lagging considerably the other codes, more than 150 000.  Despite being offset by Touch and OzTag which had roughly 190 000 female participants between them, there is a lot of growth potential on the 26 000 females that are involved in the tackle version of the game.

 

 

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On 06/10/2021 at 08:01, jacobus said:

100%.

We are an hour north of London but well outside of the RL heartlands. 

We took the RFU O2 money to get started but now the England touch rules are embedded in our players (some of whom have been with us since the age of 3 or 4) we won't be changing to the union laws. 

But in terms of ideas and support and opportunities, we hear nothing. 

We have and have had a number of players who would be good at league but there is nowhere for them to go and only me telling them how good a sport it is. 

Are you close to Bedford or Hitchin?

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10 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Australian sports participation figures for 2020 - 2021 released today. The mob that conducts the survey for the first time decided to include a cumulative figure for Rugby League, OzTag and Touch as well as individually. That`s the way it should be forever more.

I`ve seen one table of figures. Can`t be bothered searching any further, so if the following observations are invalid, I`ll be happy to be corrected.

In said table, the figures for RL, Touch, and OzTag are separate entries, listed alphabetically with other sports. The combined total is an optional extra at the bottom of the list. The info will be supplied by clubs and governing bodies and Touch and Oztag have their own independent organisations.

11 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Another interesting point was female participation with Tackle League lagging considerably the other codes, more than 150 000.  Despite being offset by Touch and OzTag which had roughly 190 000 female participants between them, there is a lot of growth potential on the 26 000 females that are involved in the tackle version of the game.

I would surmise that League Tag (as distinct from OzTag) players are counted in the 26k RL female tally. Included because LT is run through junior RL clubs.

There are apparently 29k female participants for RU. I would think the majority of these play 7s.

If the above suppositions are reliable, it means the methodology used to collate this data is still not favourable to RL. The game of Rugby 7s is barely recognisable as a form of Rugby Union, yet its participants are automatically included in the RU figures. Whereas derivatives of RL like Touch and OzTag are still not deemed integral to RL participation rates. 

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