The IRB World Rugby Conference and Exhibition 2014 is into its second day with a variety of discussions and presentations taking place in London. Here is a summary of the main talking points of the different sessions on day two. 

Keynote address by Maggie Alphonsi, Saracens and former England player

Maggie Alphonsi’s account of her journey to Women’s Rugby World Cup glory ensured the second day of ConfEx 2014 began on an inspirational note. The former England international spoke of how she and her teammates overcame the disappointment of successive defeats to New Zealand, particularly the “devastation” of losing on home soil in 2010, to win the Women’s Rugby World Cup at her third time of asking, after victory over Canada in this year’s final. 

“Finally, after 11 years of hard work for myself, and for some of the other girls eight years of hard work, we’d done it. That feeling of winning was incredibly special and one of relief,” Alphonsi told her audience. 

The IRB Women’s Personality of the Year 2006 also highlighted the exponential growth in women’s rugby from both a playing and media perspective, as well as discussing the recent award of full-time professional contracts to female Sevens players in both hemispheres.

“When I started playing rugby at the age of 16 who’d have thought that you could have rugby as a full-time job. Twenty of our England girls are now on full-time contracts.” 

The success of Alphonsi and her teammates has inspired 18,000 girls to take up the game since WRWC 2014, an increase of 25 per cent on the previous year. And Alphonsi, an England Rugby 2015 Ambassador, says increased media coverage has played a huge role in attracting more players of all ages. 

“In 2006 there was very little media coverage whereas on day two of Women’s Rugby World Cup 2014 1.5 million people (in France) tuned in to watch the rugby. The future for women’s rugby is really exciting.” 

strong>Plenary Session 1: Mind Games – The making of champions

With England, Australia and Wales set for a titanic battle to qualify from the ultimate ‘Pool of Death’ at Rugby World Cup 2015, ‘mind games’ are inevitable as the build up to the tournament continues.

Rugby World Cup 2003-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward gave an insight into his rivalry with Australian counterpart Eddie Jones.

"What people don’t realise with me and Eddie is that we were good friends, we used to speak to each other on the phone and I used to hear what he had said in the press and he used to know what I had said in the press. Did it get under my skin? Absolutely not, it was just a case of reading it and having a good chuckle, knowing you were going to have a beer together.

"I was probably more close to Eddie Jones than any other coach, but the press loved this rivalry which, to be fair, we both stirred up because it was a great rivalry to have between England and Australia and two very good teams.”

'Fail to prepare, prepare to fail' … Woodward stressed the importance of leaving no stone unturned when it comes to the mental side of the game. “I think it is important you practice and prepare for when things don’t go well. I remember in 2003 we had South Africa in our pool and months beforehand we discussed how we’d handle it if we lost that game, personally, collectively and with the media. For me, it is how you handle every single situation."

A great innovator, Woodward was never afraid to bring people in from other sports. “We tried to find anything our main competitors weren’t doing that would give us an edge.” That even included changing their playing strip at half-time in a bid to overcome slow starts to the second half of matches.

Appropriately, Woodward was joined on stage by representatives from other sports including Tim Harkness from Chelsea Football Club, former England cricketer Jeremy Snape and Anna Richards, a four-time Women's Rugby World Cup winner with the Blacks Ferns and recent IRB Hall of Fame inductee.

For Snape, a qualified psychologist, a flexible approach is important. “Looking at players in the Indian Premier League you’re not necessarily going to get a top star to sit down and have a counselling session or fill in an online questionnaire. It might just be a well-placed question as they step off the plane that they can relate to.”

Sports psychology was virtually non-existent when Richards played in her first World Cup in 1991. So how did she cope with the pressure of being the Black Ferns’ main playmaker? “First and foremost you need a lot of faith and trust in each other, and we had that. I trusted the players around me and because I played 10 and was making decisions, I felt I was in control. I tried not to see any games as different or focus on the outcome. As soon as you start thinking we’ve got to win, you lose.”



Plenary Session 2: Rugby World Cup – Past and future

Key decision-makers and administrators throughout the game spoke about the Rugby World Cup’s qualities as the crown jewel of rugby ahead of next year's event in England and RWC 2019 in Japan.

Debbie Jevans, Chief Executive of England Rugby 2015, said: “The impact of hosting a major event is very tangible. The feel-good factor that you saw after the Olympic Games (in London) is really important to us, and equally the economic impact it can have on the country. We anticipate that there will be £2.2 billion of impact of which nearly a billion pounds will be GDP. For us, as well as being about rugby it is about what it can do to galvanise the nation.”

In addition to its economic benefits, the Rugby World Cup’s role in growing the game was stressed by the IRB's Head of Rugby World Cup Alan Gilpin. “We look at the Rugby World Cup as the engine that drives the growth of the sport. There is an opportunity in Japan is to use the tournament as a springboard for the growth of the sport not just in Japan but across Asia as a whole. Japan will host a fantastic Rugby World Cup that will take us to different places.”

Akira Shimazu, the Japan Rugby 2019 Chief Executive, added: “This is a really amazing opportunity for Japan and we want to make sure we make the most of it. At this stage now it is hard to measure how much of an impact it will have but we will work hard to make sure we maximise all the opportunities that the the Rugby World Cup will give us. We will be welcoming many, many more overseas visitors than we have ever had before at a sporting event.”

Reflecting on the success of the last Rugby World Cup in 2011, New Zealand Rugby Chief Executive Steve Tew said: “We called the Rugby World Cup the crown jewel in our bid and we wanted to polish it and make it better when we handed it back. Hopefully we achieved that in 2011. For us it was a once in a lifetime opportunity; there are no other events of this magnitude that realistically New Zealand can host and none that’s got a better fit. We promised a stadium of four million people and we delivered that.”



Plenary Session 3: The future of Rugby broadcasting and fan engagement

“Media is just getting bigger to the benefit of everyone,” said Niall Sloane of Rugby World Cup 2015 host broadcaster ITV.

Sloane’s involvement with the Rugby World Cup goes back to the very start, in New Zealand in 1987, and he has seen at first hand how the broadcasting landscape has changed immeasurably in that time.

Interaction with fans is one of the key developments. “It is no longer enough to say, as a free-to-air broadcaster, can you turn on at five o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. You have to engage with fans prior to that and there are a number of way of doing that,” he reasoned.

“Why not hire YouTube stars, fly them to the event so they can video blog the event to their young digital audience,” suggested Patrick Walker of Rightster, the biggest YouTube partner outside North America,

Innovation was another theme of the hour-long discussion. “Sports are more data driven," said Murray Barnett, IRB Head of Commercial, Broadcast and Marketing. "We’ve talked about putting a chip into a rugby ball to assess the tracking and the speed of the ball and things like that. There are lots of different features you can bring to the game. Imagine having a heart-rate monitor on Jonny Wilkinson, for example, as he’s preparing to take a kick at goal.”

Plenary Session 4: Integrity – Protecting integrity and promoting inclusion

While instances of corruption and doping offences in rugby are extremely rare, Craig Reedie, President of the World Anti-Doping Agency, warns complacency is one of sport’s biggest enemies. “I think any sport that sits back and says it will never happen to us would seem to me to be naïve. We will soon be helping anti-doping agencies with more targeted sport specific anti-doping testing procedures,” he said.

Susan Ahern, Head of Legal and Legislative Affairs, stressed the importance of education. “Education is key, you have to start educating (athletes) as young as you can and get the message across that you must keep rugby clean. We are really encouraging our Unions to look at the school age, that 14, 15 and 16-year-old who is looking to potentially making a career in rugby.”

As for inclusion, female players now make up one fifth of the total playing population and Fiona Coghlan, the former Ireland captain, would like to see more women holding prominent positions within the sport. “I have been involved at international level for 11 years and the women’s game has exponentially grown and everything around it has increased with it. Unfortunately though there are no women at governance level or in a lot of Unions. I'm not saying there should be quotas, I think there are good enough women to grow the game and make it better, full-stop, not just in women’s rugby. I would love to see that come from the top and filter down.”

World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper's closing speech included the official unveiling of the governing body's new brand. "We believe World Rugby gives us a stronger visibility and a better connection with the people involved and engaged with the sport." He then thanked everyone for attending ConfEx, which will return in 2016, after what promises to be a record-breaking Rugby World Cup.