Curious Photo Begs the Question: Cross-Code Merchandising in the United States?

A theme of Armchair Playmaker is promotion of both rugby union and rugby league in harmony despite the former code's relative dominance on the global stage in the the United States. Today, we take that mission's focus off the rugby ground and into the shop window.

World Rugby Shop is one of the most prominent online shops in the United States when it comes to rugby union equipment and other merchandise. The site is run by 365, Inc., of Birmingham, Alabama, which is in turn part of Sports Endeavors of Hillsbourough, North Carolina. World Rugby Shop advertises extensively online and also promotes their material via their RugbyRugby news site, which accompanies World Rugby Shop ads with imported news content generated and collected by South Africa's Primedia Online This may solve the mystery for any American users curious about the site's occasionally disproportionate focus on South Africa, and conspiracy theorists may also see a connection to the RugbyRugby 2008 team of the year including six Springboks in the first fifteen (40% of the team, in other words) despite South Africa finishing last in the Tri-Nations tournament and failing to put a side in the Super 14 final as well (though they did finish the year well with an undefeated European Springbok tour).

At present, the World Rugby Shop spread is limited to rugby union gear, both in terms of its playing gear and its replica gear for fans. The playing gear decision makes sense, as there are not a large number of league players in the United States needing rugby league shoulderpads, footballs, etc. For the rugby league fan, however, there is no chance of grabbing a New Zealand Kiwis shirt, despite a sea of All Blacks merchandise. Considering that World Rugby Shop offers such unique items as a Kyrgystan national shirt, one might think that offering some replica gear for American rugby league fans (thereby sparing them international postage ordering rugby league gear from some overseas site) might be a nice addition.

Could World Rugby Shop make the code jump? A while back, New South Wales Blues and Queensland Maroons shirts were briefly offered among the Waratahs and Reds gear, but they are no more. That said, have a look at this recently-spotted World Rugby Shop ad:



That's the Blues before a State of Origin match!

One assumes that the image was just selected because it looked sharp, and perhaps World Rugby Shop doesn't even know they're featuring a league side in their advertising. That said, it brings up a good point: How about some cross-code merchandising in America? Surely there are enough folks around the nation who pick up league merchandise and are eager to skip the shipping bill from overseas--at least as big a market as there is for the Azerbijani nation rugby union side's guernsey. Last weekend, 5,700 people went to see the Leeds Rhinos and Salford City Reds play in Jacksonville, Florida, and around 12,000 turned up to watch Leeds and the South Sydney Rabbitohs there a year ago. If you'd buy a league shirt from World Rugby Shop, tell World Rugby Shop, or post a comment below. If not, well, no harm done. Just doing our bit to spread the cross-code harmony!