WELCOME to what we hope will be the rebirth of rugby league Nines!
My name’s Steve Mascord. I’ve been a rugby league journalist in Australia and Britain for more than 35 years. Like just about everyone who’s been around the game that long, we’ve seen some amazing triumphs, freakish players, gob smacking bravery … and plenty of missed opportunities.
Before I moved semi-full time to London in January, I decided to change my entire professional involvement in the sport. Instead of just pumping out content without any real desire to influence anyone with it – and criticising officials along the way – I decided to get my hands dirty.
On social media, I even floated the hashtag #rugbyleagueshould
#rugbyleagueshould better market the international game. So, with parter Phill Browne, I helped set up MascordBrownz.com – a central hub for international rugby league merchandise which is also available here on rugbyleaguenines.com
#rugbyleagueshould do more to promote, market, brand, broadcast and otherwise monetise Nines. Sevens is in the Olympics, after all!
Unfortunately, the powers-that-be have their hands full trying to promote the 13-a-side game. They are embracing touch and tag, which already exist with great infrastructures, and it makes sense they wouldn’t have time to try to spread a version of the sport which came to prominence as Super League’s version of the World Sevens in 1996.
Since then, it’s grown completely by accident to a format played around the world, on average, every second weekend. Rotterdam, Queenstown, Chicago, Hong Kong, Manila, London – they all have annual rugby league Nines tournaments but they don’t share anything – sponsors, broadcast opportunities, registration systems, ticket sales, social media … even the rules they employ are different!
This isn’t gonna be a simple endeavour but I want to change all that. I would love this site to be a portal for signing your team up to play, a place where we can raise funds to share between the adventurous and dedicated souls putting these matches on each weekend and a repository of knowledge for those intending on running such events in future.
How long before I’m lugging perimeter advertising to a Nines tournament, selling merch, keeping track of the scorers, taking photos for instagram and interviewing the victorious captain for YouTube? I don’t know – that’s up to you.
If you run a Nines tournament, or your club is involved in one, this site is yours. I’ll give you administrative rights. You can use our social media channels.
And to the big administrators who may be miffed that this is in some way impinging on what they are doing, or want to do, my message is simple: I’m not working against you. You, too, can have access to this site. I’ve done this to open your eyes to the opportunities.
I want to get everyone thinking about how great this version of rugby league can be. If the mere knowledge of these events occurring in glamorous locations around the world inspires someone to get behind Nines, then the hours and hours I’ve spent building this site will not have been wasted.
Steve Mascord
February 2018
