South African involvement helps put URC on the up and up

The United Rugby Championship (URC) keeps exceeding expectations and South Africa's involvement has been instrumental in the tournament continually pushing boundaries.

Interest in the competition keeps growing, with match attendances, viewership and fan engagement figures all pointing skyward.

This year’s URC has already broken most records even though the season is yet to hit the playoff stage.

“In many ways, the South Africans have taught us about professionalism and how to be professional, the game has been run along professional lines for longer there,” said URC CEO Martin Anayi.

South Africa's loyal fan base and massive stadium capacity have helped put the tournament on the map but interest has also been generated and maintained through the competitive nature of the URC.

There may be some usual suspects near the top of the table but the URC's midfield was particularly congested this season.

As it turned out, for the first time every competing territory will be represented in the quarterfinals.

“It has become a proper pan country competition and we are most proud of that. It is great to see teams from all our different nations making the playoffs,” said Anayi.

“We haven’t had that in the previous two seasons. It tells us that the competition is working. We want jeopardy throughout the league. It was a really close run-in, it went down to the last game, and to get a Welsh qualifier and Benetton getting in from Italy was great and it shows us we have a strong league. It is not just at the top end but also in the deeper reaches of the league that it is strong.”

Teams from four nations have qualified for next season’s Champions Cup, with the cut-off point moved to seven teams when the Sharks, out of the running to qualify through the URC, qualified through the EPCR Challenge Cup.

From an audience and engagement perspective, the 2023/24 season was another groundbreaking one. “We have been tracking up on the metrics and breaking things down territory by territory, focusing on audience growth across social media, broadcast and ultimately bums on seats. We have been working super hard with the clubs to show growth and healthy competition and it appears to be working,” Anayi said.

The URC's broadcast audience is up 49% globally, and in the UK and Ireland it is up 24%. Attendances are up 67% on last year’s record accumulative audience. Social media is also up and the URC is fourth globally on YouTube when it comes to rugby competitions.

“What it shows is there are more eyeballs on the URC and, as a result of that, more eyeballs on our clubs and individual brands.”

While South Africans took a greater interest in the URC than the EPCR competitions, Anayi expects that gap to close, especially after South Africa becomes a full member of the EPCR next June.

“There is a pathway they are on and there is no reason to believe they won’t become full partners (by this time next year). They are effectively treated as full partners already,” said Anayi.