The introduction of the Emirates Western Force to the national sporting landscape has coincided with significant growth in West Australian rugby participation that is unmatched across the country.
Since 2004 WA junior and senior grades have surged by more than 50% while WA is also punching significantly above its weight in terms of total percentage of players taking part in the game. The state boasts 6.68% of the total national playing pool and achieves that figure from a population base less than half of states such as Victoria (5.71% of the national playing pool).

WA’s contribution has helped Australian rugby achieve a record number of participants in 2010 with more than 200,000 people playing the code, the best results since the game was introduced into this country in the mid-1800’s.

RugbyWA’s Community Rugby Manager, Matt Tink, said the overall national numbers were extremely encouraging while the success of programmes introduced and executed by RugbyWA at a local level were having their desired results.

“Rugby in Western Australia has continued to grow and the sustained increase in participation can be attributed to the combined work by RugbyWA and the selfless service of our club volunteers,” Mr Tink said.

“The increase in player numbers across the board is an outstanding result and reinforces the health of rugby in Australia.

“We also had 10,429 school students take part in the MBF Force Express schools program last year in WA. These numbers doubled from 2009 and we believe this work will be the foundation for further increases in junior participation in this state,” said Tink.

On a national level nearly 47,500 juniors played in 2010 increasing Rugby’s junior playing numbers by 3.4%, while more than 40,200 seniors were involved in competition, increasing senior numbers by 2.3% from 2009.

National participation breakdown (%)
NSW: 43.95%,
QLD: 30.11%,
ACT: 8.56%
WA: 6.68%
VIC: 5.71%
SA: 3.05%
NT: 1.45%
TAS: 0.49%
RugbyWA