Rugby Articles 3

A magnet for collectors

Sport by its nature lends itself to collecting. To those who truly immerse themselves in sport – and the numbers are quite vast – the experience is essentially emotional.

An escape maybe. Or an out-of-body experience, where a true devotee becomes as one with the aspirations, the trials, the successes and the failures of those who focus his interest. As such it produces high moments and high experiences. Traditions follow as a matter of course.

It could be said, however, that some sports are more “collectable” than others, either for the length of their history, the richness of their traditions or simply the nature and outlook of their established support base. Rugby football is such a game.

As the British and Irish Lions tour Australia this winter, some 10,000 British tourists will follow them. Such is the volume of support that not all of them can even be guaranteed tickets to the games. But still they will come, lapping up the atmosphere at minor games and live sites, and collecting memories that they will take home with them as the real dividend of their visit.

The collectable edge that has accompanied the modern surge in Rugby’s universal popularity has been enhanced by the “event” nature of the contests. The Bledisloe Cup has grown into an international phenomenon that now assumes pre-eminence as the major sporting event of the Sydney calendar. The fact that recent games have been so spectacular has only increased the interest.

Such is the demand in the collectable market that the Australian Rugby Union itself has taken an active role in certifying the signed memorabilia that goes into circulation. They are anxious to discourage a secondary market that waters down the originality of the pieces.

The Union provides a certain number of items for charitable institutions, fund-raising events etc., but both the Union and the marketers have become concerned at the exploitation of this process.

The pieces end up in circulation via the internet and elsewhere, forcing the Union to initiate a system to brand stamp all genuine Rugby memorabilia, incorporating a code as to whether the item is a sponsor’s piece, a charity piece or a commercial piece. Every item thus has its own identity and its own history, and can be traced back to its source.

It will help to maintain the special nature of the pieces, and ensure that an end purchaser always has a certificate of legitimacy.

The Lions tour will be a collector’s paradise. The Lions are unique in sport in that they tour only rarely (the last one to Australia was 1989 and the one before that was 1966), and it is the only area of British life in which all four home countries are pitched together in common endeavour.

They are never seen at home, being a touring body only, and have never been seen in action in the northern hemisphere. As such they are a bit of a mystery to their own public, which explains in part the great interest they have in touring with them.

In pure Rugby terms, however, they offer the world champion Australians a particular challenge. The northern hemisphere nations did not embrace professional Rugby as quickly or as spectacularly as did the southern hemisphere nations, and for a time they have been left in the wake. But they are catching up rapidly, and with Australia on the edge of a rebuilding phase, the challenge of this tour is immense.

The Rugby cycle works in four year segments these days. Australia won the last World Cup, and much that happens now already is pitched towards the next World Cup, to be played in Australia and New Zealand in 2003.

The Lions don’t get to play in the World Cup, where England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales do the British bidding. So there is more to lose here for the Australians.

Whatever the outcome, it will be an historic series. And for collectors, one to remember.

click here for more articles about rugby