Roc Nation x Rugby Union

How Roc Nation will inspire the new generation of rugby

Roc Nation is an entertainment agency created and owned by billionaire rapper Jay-Z and boasts a roster of celebrities like Rihanna, DJ Khaled, Alicia Keys & J. Cole.

Now you may be thinking - what does Jay-Z have to do with rugby?

Roc Nation has a sports portfolio which is equally as impressive as it’s singers with stars like Kevin De Bruyne, LaMelo Ball & Romelu Lukaku. Roc Nation entered the rugby space after the 2019 World Cup, signing Siya Kolisi as their main rugby star. Agencies like Roc Nation make their revenue by creating and finding commercial opportunities for their clients and earning a percentage of the income, incentivising them to find the best clubs, sponsorships and commercial opportunities. After the success of the 2019 World Cup, Roc Nation saw rugby as an incredible investment and has continued to add players to their roster, most recently adding England’s Ellis Genge to their strong squad.

Rugby is a beautiful game demanding physicality, evasiveness & intelligence but above all, it’s a game built on passion. You can’t help but enjoy watching players like Cheslin Kolbe putting their bodies on the line to compete against giants or watching beasts like Siya Kolisi manhandling their opposition with well-controlled aggression. The sport is inherently geared to feed your emotions and watching it provides great entertainment but also a genuine form of inspiration. Watching players make last-ditch tackles, take down players double their size, or simply just run with intent gives us motivation for life. You feel like you can take on any gigantic task when you see Cheslin Kolbe tackle Maro Itoje and you believe that you can do anything when you see Ardie Savea dominate larger opposition with nothing but pure desire. The nature of the game is inspirational. But how else does rugby ignite the passion in people?

For rugby to inspire people, its product must reach beyond the actual game and become more and more about the people who play it. There’s a limit to how many moments in a game can inspire people but all 30 players on the pitch have stories that are guaranteed to inspire someone. Modern-day sports fans are into characters, hence why the likes of Conor McGregor, Nick Kyrgios, and LeBron James have legions of fans. People like McGregor are characters and people who don’t even watch their respective sports end up tuning in just to see them in action, not because of their performance but the character that they are and what they represent. With people like Cristiano Ronaldo having a larger Instagram following than all 20 Premier League clubs combined, athletes are at a stage where they should be transcending their sport.

For rugby to grow and attract a new generation of sports fans to inspire, we must create stories and characters. There is a limit to how many people can find rugby entertaining but there’s absolutely no limit to how many people can be inspired by the lives of the gladiators we see every Saturday. For our sport to attract new fans, we must tell our player’s stories and that’s where Roc Nation comes into the fold.

Almost all players signed by Roc Nation come from disadvantaged situations. Roc Nation has a specific type of person they are trying to market. People who rose against adversity and people whom Roc Nation believe that if their stories are told will be the ones with the greatest ability to inspire.

Siya Kolisi grew up in abject poverty with an absent father, a mother who died when he was 15, and hunger ingrained in his life. But Siya also had a different type of hunger, a passion for rugby, and a desire to make it in the sport. Siya’s talent was spotted, and he was awarded a scholarship to one of the world’s best rugby schools, Grey High. Grey nurtured his talent and led to him earning a contract at the Stormers and later the Springboks, becoming the country’s first-ever black captain and leading the Springboks to World Cup glory.

Cheslin Kolbe grew up in Kraaifontein where violence was rampant and many people his age would get sucked into gangs and crime. Cheslin followed his father’s example and dedicated himself to rugby, which kept him on the right path. He was rewarded when he joined the Western Province youth setup and eventually signed a pro contract with the club, after which he left for France to become one of the world’s highest-paid players.

Roc Nation is choosing these players because they believe in the future of rugby, our modern-day heroes, and most importantly, they are underdogs of the game. Roc Nation President, Michael Yormack, said “the future growth of this sport has to revolve around the players” and that’s exactly what Roc Nation is doing. The formula is simple. They have found players with incredible stories, and they are giving the players a chance to tell their stories and inspire everyone.

Words // Amazing Vheriwa