A packed auditorium at Pinsent Masons in central London saw the Six Nations, the EPCR, HSBC and World Rugby join our panel for a discussion on the opportunities and challenges the sport of rugby faces in 2019 ahead of a massive year for the sport.

On the panel were:

Martyn Hindley – Head of Communications and PR, EPCR
James Abraham – Content and Programming Manager, World Rugby
Shane Whelan – Digital Manager, Six Nations
Sven Gloor – Senior Manager Global Rugby Strategy & Planning, HSBC

And moderator Rupert Pratt – Director, Snack Media and Digital Sport.

Here are five things we learned from the evening:

Sevens and Women’s rugby are where World Rugby see the biggest cut-through

"Understanding a 7s clip is less complicated than understanding a 15s clip"

— Digital Sport (@DigitalSportUK) February 26, 2019

The faster and more social-friendly rugby 7s and the rapidly growing women’s rugby are the biggest growth areas for the sport. Is that a surprise? Possibly not. But with the Olympic Games coming up next year in Tokyo – just months after a 15s World Cup – this is a great

Capitalise, not cannibalise

"It's about Capitalise, not cannibalise" – Sven Gloor thinks 15s shouldn't be competing with @WorldRugby7s , and bringing in new audiences can only be a good thing#DSLondon

— Digital Sport (@DigitalSportUK) February 26, 2019

As Sven Gloor added, however, 15s should capitalise on 7s growth, not see it as one canibalising the other.

This should be seen as a chance to get a new audience into rugby, not as an existential problem for the traditional sport.

Rugby Needs to Lighten Up a Bit

"We need to lighten up a little bit" – Shane Whelan discussed how the @SixNationsRugby social media accounts need to be a little more risque with what they tweet#DSLondon

— Digital Sport (@DigitalSportUK) February 26, 2019

Look at what others are doing

"It's a cliched thing to say we need to do more storytelling, but… we need to do more storytelling!" – Martyn Hindley discusses why rugby's social media presence is too serious: "you don't see many smiles"#DSLondon

— Digital Sport (@DigitalSportUK) February 26, 2019

If you lived your life 24 hours a day through official channels, you mightn’t see many smiles in it. But it is a joyous sport – and we should talk about it that way. Storytelling is important to attracting new audiences, but also to help an existing audience to process what they’re seeing both on and off the pitch.

Rugby needs to focus on storytelling

"As rights holders, we need to do as job as good as Rugby Pass do in the content area" – Martyn Hindley on how rights holders need to do storytelling better on online platforms #DSLondon

— Digital Sport (@DigitalSportUK) February 26, 2019

Rights holders need to capitalise on the colour of the sport, the fans and their passion and to do social media and online content as well as Rugby Pass do!

Don’t forget Digital Sport London’s March event on 28th of the month – get your ticket below!