If you are a fan of rugby, and are looking for something to watch this weekend, then you owe it to yourself by tuning into the HSBC Sevens World Series 2011/2012 with the final matches being held in London, England this weekend.
The length of this series makes the NBA and NHL playoffs appear to be short by comparison. Counting this weekend’s games there will have been nine rounds that started last year with the first matches being played November 25-26th. So far New Zealand is in the lead with three series wins and a total of 150 points followed by Fiji at 139 and then England at 123. The United States is tied with Kenya at 11.
I would have watched more of the games but aside from catching a rerun on this week I had no idea that this event was even taking place. I did notice that it does have roughly 88, 000 likes on Facebook but really that is a drop in the bucket compared to other sports. Apparently the second day will be broadcast live in the United States on NBC.
While I do not quite understand all of the rules, even though they have been explained to me more than once, I have to say that I have always enjoyed watching the sport. A while back I was in France when its national team beat New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup and the town I was in celebrated all night. The person in the bar I was in chatted with me all night, apparently failing to notice that I had no idea what he was saying.
I do not want to call this a bad example of marketing yourself because it could be that I just have not been on the right sites or watched the correct program to see when the matches were being held. Still it seems to me that on a sport such as this, which has a large international following but a small, yet avid US following, a bit of marketing might be in order.
Part of the issue could also be just the way that I find out what is on the television at night. I often just look in the local paper, although I am breaking that habit. The problem is that the local paper does not always list all of the games that will be on- mine often misses Cubs baseball on WGN, football on the NFL Network and baseball on MLB’s network.
Hopefully events like this, and non US mainstream sports such as cycling and sailing will get more media savvy and learn how to get their message, and news about their events, out to the viewing public.
Speak Your Mind