Paging through the New York Times this morning -- something I rarely do -- and what do I find but an account of last night's 26-17 loss to France at the 7s World Cup.
What's more, though the news itself is poor, the summary is very well done: sufficient detail and not condescending for rugby fans, while accessible to novices. Note that rugby terms are kept to a minimum and the syntax is decidedly American.
For those of you are trying to get rugby into your local paper, here is a template. Making your content comprehensible to sports editors is an integrated part of the endeavor to make your sport attractive to the broader sporting community.
On Day 2, the US fell to Fiji 26-12 and bested Georgia 33-5 to qualify for a Plate quarterfinal match tomorrow against Australia, the Pool D runnerup.
Good points Kurt regarding making content comprehensible. My club has had great success getting our local paper to report about us. Generally it will run one feature item a year (granted it is more of a human interest story) and it will take our "press releases" of game recaps. We've always stressed words like team instead of club and field instead of pitch or uniform instead of kit...etc,etc, so the average reader will have a better grasp of the game. Grant it the paper isn't huge but it is the only one between Richmond and DC and serves a population base of 300,000 or so, but it does get the word out and we do see a spike in interest. All it took was sending an email to the editor and the recreation sports writer to get the ball rolling.
Posted by: Pete Murray | 07 March 2009 at 06:11
If USAR would pause their, at all cost, chase for international victory. This is exactly the type of initiative they should be taking the lead on.
This is what leadership is all about. Can you imagine hundreds of high school, college and club teams cracking the code on print media in our local communities? It would be a breakthrough with significant return on investment.
This requires one of two things; USAR pull it head out of its foreign ass, or the whole leadership is re-populated with better rugby administrators.
Posted by: leadership needed | 07 March 2009 at 08:32
Yes,
This has nothing to do with anyone's dark cavity. It is a lot deeper than that.
Scott Johnson made a deal with me last year.
He wanted to sacrifice the future of American rugby so he could beat Uruguay 2nds(last year), institute a Junior College Academy system, and start a pro team in Los Angeles.
Lol, even I couldn't make something like that happen, idiot.
I had to punish all of you, starting with the IRB 7's. I owed France a favor. The next thing will be a little bit more greasy.
Give my regards to my good friend Kevin Roberts, tell him that he owes me that thing for getting him that job.
Posted by: Louis Cypher | 07 March 2009 at 10:12
Print media is dying all around us.
Every rugby club is composed of local athletes in local neighborhoods whose friends and family read local newspapers and buy stuff from local businesses who advertise in them.
So why can't USA Rugby publish the hometowns of National team players and include the guys hometown paper in the PR machine? e.g just because he plays for the dallas harlequins doesnt mean he's from Dallas. I wanna know where he went to High School, where does he live now, what is the human element behind the Eagle status. today they are faceless robots, no wonder they get less media than USA Curling.
Give me a reason to invest my emotions with the team, a reason to care.
Posted by: Hmmmm | 09 March 2009 at 18:40