Fans are being driven away, say BBC

13 April 2012

The mandarins of the BBC set out to prove that rugby has become a sideshow on Sky - and discovered that the average punter couldn't tell a garryowen from Michael Owen.

In fact, the great British public would be more likely to recognise Rory and Tony Underwood's mum than Jonny Wilkinson, England's most successful points scorer.

The BBC's research unsurprisingly purports to show that rugby has drifted out of the mainstream since England signed over their home games to Sky five years ago.

But the revelation that Annie Underwood - whose animated support for her sons led to her being signed up for a pizza advert on TV - has greater name recognition than Wilkinson has serious undertones. Wilkinson's agent, Tim Buttimore, was only half joking when he told Sportsmail: 'I'm obviously not doing my job properly, with all respect to Mrs Underwood.

'I suppose Jonny just has to keep scoring points and making tackles.

'It is funny but the BBC has probably got a point to make. Maybe if the players were on the BBC, they would have a higher profile because more people would see them.'

Not everyone is convinced by the BBC's figures on the disparity between its live rugby audiences (it claims an average of five million for its 11 Six Nations games) and those for Sky (2m viewers spread over four games).

With bidding for the next Six Nations contract, running from 2003, due to start in February, the BBC's best bargaining chip is its greater potential audience.

The debate surrounding all sports rights is whether the spread - the number of viewers reached - is worth more than the absolute cash return from the sale of those rights.

The BBC will always argue that it reaches far more viewers than Sky ever can, by virtue of the fact that 98 per cent of UK homes have terrestrial TV, with the satellite provider catching up but still at around 50 per cent.

The survey, carried out by TW Research and involving eight in-depth focus groups each containing eight sports fans who watch at least two hours of sport per week, certainly suggested that rugby's profile isn't all it should be.

Many of those surveyed - all aged 20-44 with no rugbyphobes among them - described themselves as avid fans, which makes the level of confusion startling.

Asked to identify rugby terms such as garryowen, one participant asked: 'Who does he play for?' At least ruck, maul and grubber were not, thankfully, identified as South Africa's front row.

Many struggled to grasp the tactical niceties and strategies of the game, while consistent changes in the rules have confused even the diehards.

Volunteers asked to work out points tallies from the number of tries, conversions and penalties scored came up with some weird totals.

But, given that many players don't understand every rule inside out, it was the area of name recognition which should concern rugby authorities most.

England No.10 Wilkinson was not the only player to be eclipsed by Mrs Underwood when it came to putting a name to a face, with all the current England squad bar-ring Lawrence Dallaglio and Martin Johnson drawing more blanks.

One might not read too much into that - after all, Eddie the Eagle is the face of British winter sports.

But the research also showed a lack of knowledge about clubs - from where Wasps play to which sides have fierce rivalries - and the teams for who England internationals play when they aren't doing their bit for Queen and country.

If the data is to be believed, rugby is a game which a whole swathe of enthusiastic sports fans don't really understand and England is a hugely-successful team full of nonentities.

Then again, a television contract is up for renewal. And just like Christmas, the bargaining process seems to start earlier and earlier.

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