IT SEEMS STRANGE TO THINK THAT barely 20 years ago there were no leagues in English rugby, no promotion or relegation worries, no sponsorship or swish half-time entertainments. Just 30 men rolling around on a muddy field in front of their friends before everyone retired to the pub. In those days a “vision awareness coach” was the man who asked the scrum half how many fingers he was holding up before deciding whether to let him drive home.
Times have moved on. Rugby is still largely about men rolling around in the mud, but professionalism has meant that beer bellies and hungover hookers have gone the way of the four-point try.
Drinkers off the field are treated the same as eye-gougers and groin-grabbers on it: do it if you can get away with it, but preferably not to excess. Alcohol still plays a big part in the game, but as a sponsor more than a stimulant.
Bristol, Northampton and London Wasps will run out this season with a brewer’s name on their shirts, but it is the long-term sponsors of London Irish who are investing the most money into rugby this season.
Guinness has sponsored the Irish since 1988 and at least another three years remain in their latest relationship. The Dublin brewery is also entering the second season of a four-year sponsorship deal for the Premiership that is worth a total of £20 million.
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Guinness has a proud history of involvement with rugby. It was the sponsor of the World Cup in 1999, the official beer of the 2005 Lions on their tour of New Zealand and of the Ireland national side. More exotically, it also sponsors Canadian rugby and the little-known Boston Irish Wolfhounds side, one of the leading teams in the United States.
At every match held at Twickenham this season — from the Varsity match in early December to England’s RBS Six Nations Championship games — it will be hard to avoid the sight of pints of the creamy black stuff disappearing down spectators’ throats faster than Tom Varndell spotting a gap on the wing, particularly at the now legendary pre-match warm-up sessions in the West Car Park.
The best place to grab a pint, however, must be the Four Provinces bar at London Irish’s Madejski Stadium in Reading. The famous craic and the live Irish music after the games flow as easily as the Guinness, which is on ten of the bar’s 12 taps.
One of the best rugby experiences is the post-match atmosphere after the club’s St Patrick’s Day game, when sell-out crowds of more than 20,000 are recorded.
The growth in Premiership attendances last season is one of the reasons why Guinness says that it is delighted with its sponsorship of the northern hemisphere’s most competitive league. Average crowds went through the 10,000 barrier for the first time last season and with Leeds Tykes, who have a relatively weak fan-base, being replaced by Harlequins, who will attract more than 12,000 per game, this is likely to increase again.
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Compared with football’s Barclays Premiership, which had an average attendance last season of 33,000, rugby union remains a distant cousin, but it has already overtaken rugby league’s engage Super League in popularity and with several clubs such as Gloucester, Wasps and Sale Sharks working on expansion plans, it is easy to see why Guinness feels that the only way is up. Rugby is also broadening its appeal. Players from 17 countries will play in the Premiership this season, making the league the most multinational in world rugby.
“We came in last year saying we want to be a sponsor for the fans,” Lee Bailey, Guinness’s sponsorship manager, said. To that end there are all sorts of competitions and giveaways planned for this season, including the Guinness Ultimate Seat prize, a selection of goodies worth about £1,000 to be awarded to one spectator at each game.
“We’re also keen to take rugby into the pubs,” Bailey said — not that rugby has ever been coy about that. Some 6,000 “Guinness rugby pubs” have been designated throughout the country and they will be encouraged to show all the key matches, beginning with Northampton v Newcastle Falcons and Leicester v Sale on Sunday, rather than League Two football or afternoon racing.
The Guinness Premiership, which will be broadcast on Sky Sports in high-definition, is being promoted by a gangster-style TV advertising campaign that features leading players looking tough under the banner: “Twelve teams, one turf”.
Among them are Lawrence “The Enforcer” Dallaglio, Andy “Brickhouse” Sheridan and Thomas “Hands” Castaignède. Presumably, Castaignède’s nickname is a tribute to The Times’s illustrious Rugby Correspondent.