Can Melbourne learn to love the Wallabies? Inside Australian rugby union’s fight for eyeballs

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The British and Irish Lions are training this week at a plush private school in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, the boarding boys returning to their dorms after the holidays to find strange company on the campus. Not that many will be aware of the significance of their visitors. “Most won’t even know the difference between rugby union and league,” a schoolmaster says. Where plenty will harbour ambitions of making it to the AFL, with a long list of past Premiership winners to inspire them, notable rugby alumni do not instantly spring to mind. “I think Stirling Mortlock might have gone here,” the member of staff erroneously suggests of a Sydney-sider.

Welcome, then, to Melbourne, a place where rugby union sits someway down the public’s pecking order. This is a wonderful city, particularly for sports fans, with the thicket of arenas within which the Melbourne Cricket Ground is the tallest tree a short walk away from the CBD. It is in that sporting copse that the Australian Open is held each January, while one can quickly find your way to Flemington Racecourse or Albert Park if horsepower is more your thing.

open image in gallery The MCG sits just a short stroll from Melbourne's CBD ( AFL Photos via Getty Images )

But even with the Lions in town, Melburnians are seeming to shrug. The second Test promises to be quite the occasion with close to 90,000 fans expected at the MCG but there is an acceptance among residents that many, if not most, of those will be wearing Lions red. A local reporter this week pressed Wallabies Rob Valetini and James Slipper on how it would feel to be playing in front of a “one-sided” away crowd on home soil – and was not met with much opposition.

“One thing I do know is there's a lot of love for rugby in Australia,” Slipper, playing his second Lions series, says. “On the potential of having a one-sided stadium because it's an AFL stadium – they're still Australian, so they'll be there. I know they'll be there.

open image in gallery The Wallabies met up with AFL stars from the Essendon Bombers at the MCG ahead of the second Lions Test ( Getty Images )

“It's one thing about this country, regardless of the sport, they'll get behind the national colours. The landscape in Australia is quite clouded. There's a lot of sports, a lot of opportunities for kids to play different sports, and that's great itself.

“But for us, we want to be a team that not just invites, but motivates kids to play rugby. That's the key for us. We want to be a team that kids enjoy watching, fans enjoy watching, and then hopefully the game grows from there.”

It is a shame, in some ways, that Melbourne has lost its Super Rugby Pacific franchise, but it had been coming. The Rebels had always felt a slightly peculiar venture since their entry in 2011, spreading a dwindling pool of talent in the nation thinner and making some questionable investments. Between 2011 and 2020, they did not finish higher than 9th on the ladder and failed to make the play-offs once. In fact, their only ever knockout game was their last – a 47-20 thrashing by the Hurricanes in last year’s quarter-final.

Having earned a surprise stay of execution when the Western Force was folded in 2017, news seven years later of the Rebels’ demise did not exactly come as a shock. A financial analysis suggested that the team lost AU$54m (£26m) during their time in existence; they were far from the only rugby team in the world to be run unsustainably but it was little surprise that Rugby Australia (RA) did not fight too hard to save them.

open image in gallery The demise of the Rebels has left Melbourne without a Super Rugby side ( Getty Images )

The lack, however, of an elite side in a city that contains nearly 30 professional sporting outfits, including nine AFL teams, has cut off a development pathway. Melbourne may not be a rugby union hotbed but talent has always come through – Rob Valetini has become one of Australia’s best and Sione Tuipulotu, now in Lions red, probably should have done, too.

“I played with Sione pretty much through all my grades growing up,” Melbourne-born Valetini, who was inspired as much by the Fijian sevens stars as any Australian rugby heroes, explains.

“He was always class. He was probably the guy you sort of wanted to be growing up in Melbourne. It was always a goal to play for the Rebels as well and I think he did that. I was pretty shocked that he had to leave.

open image in gallery Rob Valetini is Melbourne born and raised ( Getty Images )

“Rugby sits quite low in the ecosystem, but that never really distracted me from anything. I knew what I wanted to do and I've always loved rugby when I was younger. I've always had the love for union and it didn't distract me from anything.”

Perhaps, though, the loss of the Rebels has created an opportunity for the future. The Lions had been due to face the Super Rugby side between Tests one and two on this tour, but their disbandment forced a re-think and the assembly of the First Nations & Pasifika XV that player with such pride and passion at Marvel Stadium on Tuesday night. It had been a week to remember for all involved as the many communities that have enriched Australian rugby for generations came together to celebrate their heritage – with Rob Leota, a former Rebels stalwart and captain, a fitting try-scorer in the final few minutes.

If rugby union is to grow in Australia, continuing to access as broad a range of populations as possible will surely be key. “I am thinking bigger picture here. I think for the next generation, for the young Pasifika First Nations kids in Australia, this jersey, this emblem, represents them,” captain Kurtley Beale, born and raised in Dharug country but only the 14th Indigenous man to play for the Wallabies, emphasises.

open image in gallery Kurtley Beale hopes the First Nations & Pasifika side returns in the future ( Getty Images )

“If you look at the Wallabies now and in the past, there has been a lot of Pasifika & First Nations representation at that level, and to be able to bring talent through and create pathways for those kids is what it is all about. As a squad, we are very proud to be able to do that at this level. It’s giving these kids opportunities. This is a fantastic concept and it needs to continue.”

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