Professional Rugby Turns 25

We take a look at the past, present and future of rugby.

It’s almost shocking to think that the game we know and love looked completely different just a short time ago – and has come such a long way since then.

It seems like eras ago that players had full time jobs whilst juggling rugby training, weekend games and sinking pints at the club house after those games.

On 26 August 1995, the game of rugby flipped the switch and became professional. Whilst predictable, it still came as a shock to many about how quickly things changed; players called into meetings with club bosses who now wanted everyone to put pen to paper and sign professional contracts. Former England scrum-half Matt Dawson recalls how his wages more than doubled to £20,000 a year, up from the £9,000 he was earning as a school P.E teacher.

To mark the quarter-century birthday, BBC’s Chris Jones spoke to World Rugby boss Brett Gosper around the future of the game. Brett comes across as a genuine fan of rugby and when speaking, the cool-headedness approach and balance between financial and on-pitch issues will leave fans knowing the future of the game is in fairly safe hands.

Brett is optimistic about growing the game of rugby globally, citing gender and geographical growth are the main drivers moving forward.

"Coming from where we have come from - seeing the interest it engenders whether in the World Cup arena or the Olympics arena - this sport only has one direction to go, so you can only be optimistic,” says Gosper, "Yes, we would probably like to have moved a bit faster and brought on some new markets faster, which we are working on now.”

The game has grown in numbers massively, from 1.5m players in 1995 to nearly 10 million globally in 2020, and female players make up nearly 30% of that number. Outside of the players, viewing figures have also exploded - rising to over 850m viewers from 50m in 1995.

For all it’s ups and downs over the last 25 years (which happens in every sport), it really is incredible what the game has achieved in a relatively short period of time. We look forward to a future of rugby that hopefully keeps growing.

Listen to the full interview on BBC Radio 5 Live.

And, while the elite game looks like it’s being taken care of, at the other end of the spectrum we are doing our bit for grassroots rugby with our Project: Won for Won.