At its annual meeting on Monday night, the union outlined how many players it had in the previous year.
The union had 7843 players, which was an increase of 2.9%. There was an increase of 6% in coaches, with 621 people coaching across all ages and grades.
Union general manager Richard Kinley said there had been an increase in players aged 5-12, while senior numbers had been boosted by the return of Lawrence and Clyde-Earnscleugh to country club competitions last year.
Secondary school numbers had remained relatively static, while female numbers had risen to about 1200, which made up 16% of overall playing numbers.
However, doubt was raised over the numbers, especially for the forthcoming season.
Pirates had pulled out of premier ranks and was also down a senior side and a colts side.
Other clubs have also lost senior players, while Roxburgh had been unable to put together a team in the senior competition in Central Otago. That had reduced that competition to eight teams.
Kinley said a meeting of Dunedin club chairmen last week had decided to have a detailed look at player numbers at the end of the club season and see what the trends were.
Some areas were going in opposite directions.
In Central Otago, there had been a jump in junior registrations over the past 10 years, rising 36%.
But that did not always work it way through to the senior grades, as there was a drop off in the secondary schools.
The union was trying to address that with various initiatives to keep young people in the sport.
Kinley said the drop-off was not unique to rugby and all sports had issues with retention of players.
He said there was a drop off of players from primary school to intermediate and then from intermediate to high school.
