No simple solution to problem of decreasing player numbers

The Otago Rugby Football Union says all clubs are working hard to maintain players and volunteers.

But decreasing player numbers is a national trend and there is no silver bullet to halt the decline.

The Otago Daily Times highlighted the drop in playing numbers over the past few years in an article on Saturday.

Twenty-five teams have been lost to the game in the past 20 years in the Dunedin metropolitan competition.

Otago Rugby Football Union general manager Richard Kinley said New Zealand Rugby was fully aware of the issue and was working hard to come up with solutions.

But a solution could only be found if all groups compromised and looked at the big picture.

''What we are finding is our junior numbers are pretty good. They are doing well and perhaps when you go up to the tackle grades, and above, maybe 12-13, you get a few leaving. But you've always had that,'' he said.

Overall there was an increase of 14 junior teams in Otago in the past five years. However, the drop-off starts really kicking in at high school, continues through the teenage years and on to when pupils leave high school.

Kinley said some people blamed high schools for losing too many players but that was simplistic.

''New Zealand Rugby have a big project they are looking at under the whole teenage school space. The key strategic goal is how do we work with secondary schools and clubs to keep players involved. There is a lot of discussion to have with club and high schools but it needs to be driven and agreed from a national perspective.''

He said Otago had 33 clubs and 21 high schools to work with and not all wanted the same solution. If players all went back to their clubs and did not play for high schools then some clubs would not have the numbers to field a team.

Some players wanted to play for their high schools and it also took much organisation to run teams right through those teenage years.

Otago community rugby manager Richard Perkins said it was not something which could be rushed.

''We can't run away from the issue but we also can't afford to rush it. We need to have a decent crack at it and get it right,'' Perkins said.

Kinley said what had come through from a player survey last year was the club experience was still very important to players.

But many players did not want to train every Tuesday and Thursday.

''These people want to play a different form of game for a year or two and then may decide they want to get back into a more serious type of game.''

He said the high-performance end of the game would always be there for players. The difficulty was how to set up the participation grade and how casual it would become before it became impossible to organise.

Kinley said the clubs were working very hard to keep players and there were plenty of initiatives around to keep clubs relevant.

Numbers were against them - the population was dropping in the rugby player age-group and more than 60% of tertiary students in Dunedin were female.

But Kinley said rugby was in a good place. ''I still think it is the game that a lot of people in New Zealand want to play.''