Rugby League Push into China

Written by TONY ADAMS, August 1, 2015
RUGBY league is set to attempt the boldest move in its 120-year history – a push into the world’s biggest market . . . China.

Next year, up to half a-dozen athletes, hand-picked from China’s 1.35 billion population, will be brought to Australia and placed with NRL clubs.

“It takes just one to make it,” says league visionary and former Balmain and Newtown coach Paul Broughton, the man behind the ambitious project.

“If one makes it, over a billion people will watch him and support him.

“The Chinese army, the world’s biggest employer, plays rugby union – that’s millions of players already learning the fundamentals.

“Officials over there are currently hand-picking a short list of players.

“We will select six or so from them and take it from there.”

But Broughton’s plans don’t stop there – he intends to send coaches to China to teach the game to the masses. And he has the backing of the NRL.

“Asia is the future,” Broughton predicts. “The Chinese love their sport and they need heroes.

“Look at what happened in basketball. One of their players, Yao Ming, made it in the United States – now all of China watches the NBA. It is exciting.”

Broughton realises it won’t be easy for Chinese athletes to make it in the NRL.

“They won’t come up with a Johnathan Thurston or a Cameron Smith overnight . . . players with great skill and the ability to read a game,” he admits.

“But we might find a David Klemmer – someone big, strong and fast who can tuck the ball under his arm and run through tackles.

“If that happens, the game of rugby league will change forever. Japan is hosting the Rugby Union World Cup in 2019. They see the potential in Asia and it’s time we did, too.”

Broughton wants to gradually introduce the Chinese to the game, ideally through a World Nines in Shanghai in 2018.

“The city has a population of 26 million – more than the whole of Australia – and the China Australia Sport Exchange (CASE) is based there,” he explains. “They have already started playing touch football and if we can get league into schools and teach kids the fundamentals, we will be well on our way to getting a foothold in the world’s biggest sporting market.

“The benefits to league via cable TV and marketing would be mind-blowing.

“Nines football is fast and furious and the Chinese would love it.”

Broughton has been working closely with CASE and gained the approval of Chinese government officials curious about the potential of a new sporting outlet for their youth.

“They will make things happen.

“The NRL sees the potential of this project and the clubs I have spoken to have also expressed their support. I have put the concept to the NRL through Todd Greenberg, the NSWRL through David Trodden, and kept the QRL briefed. Several clubs have told me they are happy to take some Chinese players on board and place them in their systems and expose them to coaching at the elite level – they have nothing to lose.”

Broughton hopes to take a couple of NRL coaches to China early next year to pick his first batch of players.

“The plan is for them to come to Australia and then return and pass on what they have learned to other players,” he says.

“In the last soccer World Cup, Belgium had 60 per cent of their players based in England playing in the EPL. They got better playing at the elite level and the standard of the game in all of Belgium improved through awareness and education.

“There is no reason the same can’t happen with rugby league and China.”

RL3015_china_Broughton